Genre: Romance/Comedy
Director: Nick Hurran
Cast: Kevin Zegers, Samaire Armstrong, Mpho Koaho, Sharon Osbourne, Genelle Williams, Sherry Miller, Emily Hampshire, Robert Joy, Brooke D'Orsay
RunTime: 1 hr 38 mins
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Rating: NC-16 (Sexual Humour)
Official Website: http://www.itsaboygirlthing.co.uk/

Opening Day: 3 July 2008

Synopsis:

It’s A Boy Girl Thing is a high-jinx romantic comedy about next-door neighbours who live worlds apart. Woody Deane and Nell Bedworth, life-long sworn enemies, wake up one day to find themselves in a very strange place: each others bodies. In their switched identities, each sets about to destroy the other’s high school reputation. When they start to succeed they get more than they bargained for. Sometimes falling in love can be an out of body experience.

Movie Review:

The body-switching scenario has been done to death in countless comedy films and TV shows. Over the years, we have seen “Freaky Friday” and “The Hot Chick” gracing the cinemas. Even our very own Jack Neo had jumped on the bandwagon with “Just Follow Law”. Now, we have “It’s a Boy Girl Thing” to add to the mix.

The unfortunate pair to have their bodies switched in this film are both high school students as well as neighbours. Woody (Kevin Zegers) is the star player of the school football team. His future is entirely dependent on a homecoming football game where college football scouts will be attending and offering him a scholarship if he manages to impress them. Nell (Samaire Armstrong) on the other hand is known as the ‘pencil-neck virgin girl’ at school. She is more academically-inclined than Woody, with her ambition being to get into Yale after finishing high school. Though they have been neighbours since young, they are always at loggerheads. As fate has it, they get their bodies switched overnight after quarreling in front of a magical Aztec statue during a museum trip. From then on, it’s disaster after disaster as they try to adapt to their predicament while wrecking each other’s lives in the process. However, once they learn more about each
other’s untold problems, things start to get more complicated as they develop feelings for each other.

As per the formula of the body-switching scenario, much of the film’s fun is derived from watching Woody and Nell get used to their new bodies and identities. Having their genders changed certainly results in numerous occasions for laughs from wearing clothes to answering nature’s call. Most hilarious is the scene where Nell has to adjust to having Woody’s “morning condition”. Then there is the matter of pretending to be their apparent identities without arousing their families and friends’ suspicion.

Kevin Zegers, best known as the child actor who appeared in a series of animal-starring films like “Air Bud” and “MVP: Most Valuable Primate”, gives a fairly decent performance here alongside Samaire Armstrong from “The OC” and “Dirty Sexy Money” TV series. Since special effects are at a bare minimum, it all depends on both actors to convince us that the odd couple actually switched bodies. They are ably complemented by interesting supporting characters, most notably Woody’s football teammate, Horse (Mpho Koaho) and Woody’s mother, played by Sharon Osbourne who is the real-life wife of rock legend Ozzy Osbourne.

The film is still very much a typical teen comedy touching on the trials and tribulations of normal teenagers, such as the desire to be popular among peers and breaking out of stereotypes like athletes without brains or nerds without social lives, except that it cleverly uses the body-switching scenario to present them through the two opposing characters’ viewpoints. While this may seem to be a profound insight, the issues are not given enough depth. Very often they get mentioned and resolved rather swiftly to fit the film’s pace. There is also no detailed explanation on the Aztec statue that cursed the couple and its ulterior motive (that is, if it does have a mind of its own) other than being a mere prop and simple visual effects showcase.

Overall, “It’s a Boy Girl Thing” is another run-of-the-mill teen comedy with a little fantasy twist. It does its required job to entertain and that’s about all there is to it. Among other comedies employing the overused body-switching scenario, it remains as a forgettable addition rather than an exception.

Movie Rating:

Review by Tan Heng Hau

(“It’s a Boy Girl Thing” does not break new ground within the body-switching genre of comedies, keeping itself as a plain and simple thing)