It's a Boy Girl Thing- DVD Review

Film, Reviews

itsaboygirlthing
Available at Amazon.com

Neighbors and high school enemies, prospective Yale student Nell Bedworth and star quarterback Woody Deanne commit movie mistake number 107 A.

They have an argument in front of a mystical statue before important life events.

Naturally, the next night finds them switching soul-fog and the subsequent morning finds them in each other’s bodies. Now, they must figure out how to get back into the right bodies before the “Big Game” and the “Big College Interview” both of which are mere days away!

Sure enough, Woody and Nell learn a lesson on empathy and, what the heck, they fall in love.

It’s a Boy Girl Thing can really be evaluated as a mash-up of several types of movies. It’s a bawdy teen picture, more than happy to make it’s share of dick jokes. At times, it is a surprisingly sweet rom-com. Obviously, though, it is a body swap movie a la Freaky Friday and it’s ilk. The body swap movie is itself a sub-genre of the “foreign body” movie, which encompasses possessions, reincarnations, transformations, etc. More specifically It’s a Boy Girl Thing is a trans-gender body swap film, a “twist” on the body swap concept. It’s a new twist right? It’s only been seen before in such films as The Hot Chick, Pon un Hombre en Tu Vida, 1940’s Turnabout, X, Y, TV-movie A Saintly Switch, Prelude to a Kiss, Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge, Tenkosei, Dating the Enemy, Dame Tu Cuerpo, and I’m sure countless low-budget fetish pornographic films.

Oh.

Anyway, it’s safe to say that the film doesn’t really examine the metaphysics of self or explore the existential notions of one-ness apart from material form. For that matter, it barely explores the gender divide. The movie doesn’t supply the requisite cliche montages, such as “trying on dresses”, “learning to put on makeup”, “how do I walk in these heels?” Instead the film stresses the snob vs. slob element of the body swap, apparently more interested in the jock pretending to be an academic aspect of this transformation. The main reason for the swap to occur cross-genders seems to be so that the couple can get together after the “Big Dance” without the film pushing a homosexual agenda.

All in all, the first half of the film is far too broad and mean-spirited to fully accept the happy little package the film wraps itself into during the second act.

It’s a Boy Girl Thing is directed by Nick Hurran of Little Black Book. Transamerica‘s Kevin Zegers plays the male body. Entourage‘s Samaire Armstrong, recently seen in such things as. . . wait for it. . . rehab, plays the female body. Queer as Folk‘s Sherry Miller plays snooty mom to Sharon Osbourne’s trashy mom.

Yep, Sharon Osbourne.


It’s fine.


There are a bunch of “cutesy” extras on this disc.

First off, there is a Are you more boy or girl? quiz. I guess this is in case you were considering some sort of operation.

Second off, we get a History of the Aztec Statue, which wedges some body-swapping into historical moments. You know, Mike Tyson bit Holyfield because of a body swap?

I can’t be bothered with such things.

Third off, we get a Making of featurette which lasts about 7 minutes, and features Elton John explaining why he produced this thing.

Fourth off we get a pair of interviews with our leads. Each lasts about 7 minutes.

Finally, we get some Bios of our two leads.


It’s a Boy Girl Thing is formulaic and has a decidedly negative outlook on life. The girls are vapid, crying things. The boys are mono-syllabic sexual predators. Mothers are either castrating witches or Sharon Osbourne.

Still, there are much worse films out there. If you can make it through the awful first act, the movie starts to have its own stupid charm.

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Anchor Bay presents It’s a Boy Girl Thing. Directed by Nick Hurran. Starring Kevin Zegers and Samaire Armstrong. Written by Geoff Deane, based on a story by Deane and Steve Hamilton Shaw. Run time: 94 minutes. Not Rated. Released on DVD: June 17, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.