Ryan (Shane West) is best friends with Maggie (Marla Sokoloff), but he’s in love with kugel Ashley (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe). Trouble is, she scorns him, as Maggie scorns jock Chris (James Franco). So Chris proposes to Ryan that they help each other gain the attentions and/or affections of their respective beloveds, and an amusing double Cyrano scenario develops in the high school romantic comedy Whatever It Takes.
The high school genre must be almost played out, what with American Pie and Ten Things I Hate About You (the best so far) still lingering in the memory, but Whatever It Takes makes a good go of refreshing the various formulae available. Naturally, the climax takes place at the prom, that great American mating ritual – but, thanks to a subplot involving Ryan’s rebellious chum Floyd (Aaron Paul), this prom’s Titanic theme is turned on its head.
The kids are cute, though West and Sokoloff have not been cast simply for their physical charms, which are, in any case, at a slight angle to the Hollywood paradigm. They achieve some depth in their roles, and O’Keefe and Franco account well for themselves as characters who have the looks but lack the heart.
Whatever It Takes is no masterpiece, and you can comfortably wait for the video, but it does entertain. At any rate, I didn’t find myself wishing this were a teen slasher pic and that everyone was about to be carved up into little bloody bits.