She's the Man

It must be one of the funniest show I watched in the movies. Clever plot, the correct cast, guys with great bodies, all adds up to a great movie! I was going through the movie in my mind one night before I sleep and I was thinking how did the scriptwriter came up with such funny names for the characters. People don't exactly called their children "Duke", "Viola" or "Olivia" nowadays. The names seem to come straight of out Shakespeare's stories. And then, I slowly realised that the plot seems familiar, like one of ......... Shakespeare's tales! To tell the truth, I sat up immediately. They generate a new movie out of a Shakespeare's story! Quite clever, in fact. The central idea of the story is sure to be great, coming from a master of story writing, Shakespeare himself. Well, the play is called "Twelfth-Night: Or What You Will". Below is the tale from Shakespeare.

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Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, was in love with a fair lady, by the name of Olivia. However, Olivia, having lost a brother whom she loved dearly, was in mourning and had refused to even see the Duke.
One day, out in the sea, a ship encountered a fierce storm and the crew was shipwrecked. A sister and brother thus was seperated. Viola, the sister, reached the shores of Illyria safely with the ship's captain but Sebastian, her twin brother, was lost. Viola was devastated. When she heard about Olivia from the ship's captain, she felt a connection between them - both had lost their brothers. She felt a sudden longing to live with that lady, to comfort each other over the lost of their brothers. She came up with a plan and that was to dress up as a page (messenger boy), get close to the Duke and hopefully, the Duke will send her to Olivia to express his love for her.
Cesario, Viola's new identity, spent long hours listened to the Duke, who poured out all his feelings for Olivia to his faithful page. Over time, Cesario began to developed feelings for the sentimental Duke.
One day, the Duke commanded Cesario to go to Olivia's house to plead his love. Cesario was very troubled but she was a loyal page and thus, made her way to Olivia's house. Cesario was very insistent in meeting Olivia and would not take no for an answer from the servants. Olivia, curious at the noise, agreed to see Cesario. Upon seeing someone with such a elegant air, Olivia became more and more attracted to the young "man", as Cesario went on about how much the Duke loved her.
On her second visit, Olivia poured out her real feelings for Cesario. Cesario, shocked, rejected her love, saying that she could never love a woman, and went out as fast as she could. Not soon after, she was challenged to a duel by a Sir Andrew, a former suitor of Olivia. Cesario is afterall a girl and thus she went weak at knees at the thought of a duel. However, just as she was pulling out her sword, someone yelled to Sir Andrew, saying that he would be fighting on behalf of this gentleman. Cesario turned and saw a stranger. She wondered why would a stranger want to fight on her behalf. Suddenly, two officers came up and arrested the stranger for a past offence he committed. The stranger then turned to Cesario and said," This comes from looking for you, my friend. Still, I must now answer for my offence. Please returned me the purse that I had given you."
Cesario was confused beyond doubt at the moment and she insisted she did not recieved any purse from the stranger and even offered him some of her money. The man, enraged, turned to the crowd and cried out that Cesario was ungrateful, ending with a sentence that shocked Viola, " O Sebastian, how you have deceived me!" Sebastian, Viola's twin brother, had survived the shipwrecked and the stranger is Antonio, a sea captain, who saved his life.
Meanwhile, Sebastian was walking around town when he was attacked by Sir Andrew, who had mistaken him for Cesario. The noise brought out Olivia and she ordered them to stop fighting. She brought Sebastian into her home and showered him with attention. Sebastian was delighted by the care and concern from Olivia, who also mistook him for Cesario. The lady, afraid the he might pushed her away again, proposed that they should get married immediately. Sebastian, happy but bewildered, accept the proposal and they were married right there and then. He then went off, looking for Antonio to share the good news.
Antonio was then brought to Olivia's house by the two officers. The Duke had also arrived. Antonio pointed at Viola and said that she was the reason he returned back to Illyria and risked getting caught. However, the Duke said that Viola had been with him for the past 3 months. Olivia then arrived and called Viola her "husband". Viola was shocked. The Duke was more hurt than shocked. He could not imagine his faithful page betraying him. Suddenly, Sir Andrew arrived, claiming that he had been attacked by Cesario. Viola, bewildered, said that she had never fought Sir Andrew.
At this moment, Sebastian appeared. The group became silent and they stared at both Viola and Sebastian. They had the same features, the same complexion, the same height, in fact, they were identical. Finally Antonio spoke up and asked who is the real Sebastian. Viola stepped forward and told Sebastian that she was, in fact, Viola. It was a happy reunion for the siblings. The Duke, realising the Cesario was actually a girl, began to look at Viola with new eyes. Olivia, seeing the look the Duke gave Viola, proposed that the priest who wedded her and Sebastian, performed another wedding as well. And they lived happily ever after.



That's the end of the story. I added in the last sentence myself, to make the story end nicely. Hee! *Pants* I hope you all enjoyed the story, it is not easy to summarise until like this, you know! Maybe people won't even look at the story. Though I hope I did a good job summarising, this story is too simplified to be enjoyable. So maybe peeps out there may want to borrow the play to read. One last thing, anybody see the similarities up there?