It's a Boy Girl Thing Movie Review

It's comforting to know that, deep into the 2000s, there is still someone trying to dig a final nugget of gold from the old swapping-bodies plot device. Freaky Friday w ill simply never die. Never!

In this installment, it's, well, a boy girl thing. The swappers are high school seniors: Dim jock Woody (Kevin Zegers) and Yale-destined brainiac Nell (Samaire Armstrong), who've lived next door to each other all their lives and, as this type of movie dic tates, now hate each other. A class field trip and an Aztec idol get the switcheroo done (the mechanics of the switch are, of course, inconsequential), but with Woody's brain in Nell's body and vice versa, how will she dazzle the regents during her final Yale interview, and how will Woody impress the talent scouts at the Homecoming football game?

The film tries to have fun with the boy-in-girl's-body setup but never gets very far, thanks to its PG-13 rating. Woody-as-Nell hikes up her skirts and even goes to a pajama party, but it's unclear why he/she would ever submit to a full bikini wax except to give us one enormous and wholly expected holler. Armstrong gives a wholly watchable performance (though, at 26, she's clearly too old to be playing 17), but Zegers actually has more fun with the girl-brain, as she immediately cleans up his act by combing his hair and tucking in his shirt, then talking in proper English, much to the horror of his abrasive, meat-obsessed mom (Sharon Osbourne) and dad (Maury Chaykin).

It's a Boy Girl Thing shines in the tiny moments (the guys in the film continually express a hatred for the music of Elton John... one of the film's executive producers), but this gag has a really worn-down feel to it now. The problem is that we know exactly what every plot point -- big or small -- will arrive, and when it will hit. The movie writes itself: Will not-Nell have trouble figuring out a bra? Will not-Woody be horrified by her new male anatomy? All this movie needs is a choreographed dance number to complete the circle of life.