Whatever It Takes

by Tom Meek

Another teenage romantic comedy -- it could have been titled He's All That -- unfolds with pushbutton predictability in the corridors of 90210 high. Ryan (Shane West looking too Chris O'Donnell-like for his own good) and Maggie (Marla Sokoloff, the annoyingly spunky receptionist on The Practice) are neighbors and members of the geek population at school. Graduation is around the corner, and Ryan is pining for Ashley (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, who filled out a similar role in She's All That), the curvaceous head cheerleader and most coveted babe, to be his prom date. It turns out that Ashley's cousin, Chris (James Franco), your quintessential asshole jock, has the hots for Maggie, so the two plot to set each other up. But when Ryan discovers Ashley has a bad foot fungus and poor social manners, he realizes that love has been under his nose the whole time.

Why a stuck-up prick like Chris would go for Maggie and why a well-adjusted nice guy like Ryan would act so dumb is beyond comprehension. The film does offer some bubblegum sweet tenderness and a few uproarious gags (mostly from Aaron Paul as the hipster geek), but that's not nearly enough.