B-

Ordinarily filmmakers shouldn’t go back to the same well twice, but like all rules, this one has its exceptions. Scripters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith found success back in 1999 transforming a Shakespearean plot into a high-school comedy with “10 Things I Hate About You,” which was based on “The Taming of the Shrew.” Now, in collaboration with Ewan Leslie, they offer a teen movie inspired by “Twelfth Night,” and–surprise of surprise–lightning strikes twice. “She’s the Man” will never be confused with great art. But it transposes the Shakespearean template into teen-comedy terms fairly cleverly, and it boasts mostly likable characters, generally amusing dialogue, an attractive cast and spiffy direction. The result is a colorful, engaging takeoff that may not be cerebral but isn’t airheaded, either.

The new linchpin of the plot is soccer. Viola (Amanda Bynes) is upset when the girls’ team is disbanded at Cornwall Prep and the boys’ squad–including her preening boyfriend Justin (Robert Hoffman)–refuses to let her try out for it. When her twin brother Sebastian (James Kirk) sneaks off to London with his band and asks her to cover for him at his new school, Illyria, she decides to have her hairdresser buddy Paul (Jonathan Sadowski) transform her into a guy so that she can take Sebastian’s place, win a spot on the soccer squad, take the field against Cornwall a couple of weeks later and show her skill by kicking…the ball into the net. Of course, the imposture’s proves difficult, and is made more so when she’s attracted to her roommate, hunky but surprisingly sensitive soccer star Duke (Channing Tatum), who offers to help her hone her skill on the field if she, in turn, aids him to get a date with Olivia (Laura Ramsey), a blonde campus princess he’s infatuated with but in whose presence he’s tongue-tied. Olivia, meanwhile, is taken with Sebastian, and dates Duke to make “him” jealous.

There’s more, of course. Priggish Malcolm (James Snyder) dotes on Olivia and senses something peculiar about Sebastian. Sebastian’s shrewish girlfriend Monique (Alex Breckenridge) is determined to track him/her down. Viola’s mother (Julie Hagerty) is determined that her daughter will make her debut at a high society ball. And along the way the girl-posing-as-a-guy has to contend with Illyria’s demanding coach (Vinnie Jones) and its over-friendly principal (David Cross). On the outskirts are other characters–the girl-hungry friends and teammates of Duke’s, the geeky girl with the massive retainer (remember her from “Sixteen Candles”?), and Viola’s dad, to mention only a few.

As all this suggests, if ineptly handled “She’s the Man” could have been both crushingly familiar and intensely irritating. That it’s the first but avoids being the second is the result of surprisingly bright writing and execution. The script wisely minimizes the parts of the play that don’t work terribly well nowadays–the Uncle Toby business and the cruel treatment of Malvolio, which now seem (respectively) overripe and mean-spirited; Malcolm is Malvolio, of course, but his part in the story is greatly reduced and he’s made a far less menacing figure, and while Duke’s genial pals represent the Toby clique, they’re much less central to the plot. And the picture not only manages to make Viola/Sebastian and Duke genuinely pleasant people but puts some real charm into the contorted plot twists and the characters that surround them. Wonder of wonders, the soccer action is actually quite convincing, too. Though doubles were certainly employed (and Bynes is photographed a bit too often from the waist up, or–in an even more tell-tale fashion–in terms of feet alone), it actually looks as though some of the actors (Tatum in particular) actually did their own playing.

To be sure, the picture never remotely convinces us that the transformed Viola could ever actually be mistaken for a guy. But that’s the case with virtually every staging of “Twelfth Night”–on stage or screen. And some of the obligatory cross-dressing slapstick gets wearisome. Even in their small doses, Malcolm and Monique can be annoying. And the movie fails to get much comic mileage out of the hostility between Duke and Justin, especially in a fistfight at a carnival (a cat-fight involving Viola, Olivia and Monique doesn’t work, either–the violence is a little too real). Cross’ clueless persona is used (or misused) a bit overmuch, too.

But despite occasional stumbles director Andy Fickman and his cast score more often than not. “She’s the Man” generally juggles the various elements smartly, rarely descending to the tastelessness most teen comedies regularly revel in. Though Bynes might have beneficially been reined in at a few points, she’s personable and energetic, and Tatum is a genuine find–handsome but not lunk-headed. The rest of the cast supports them nicely, with Hagerty and Cross making the most of even some of the script’s flatter moments and Jones bringing real comic authority to a role that could easily have dragged things down. The movie’s nicely appointed, too, with colorful production design (David J. Bomba), art direction (John R. Jensen and John Burke), sets (John E. Marcynuk and Dominique Fauquet-Lemaitre) and costumes (Katia Stano), and crisp camerawork by Greg Gardiner. The editing by Michael Jablow keeps things moving well, especially in the climactic soccer game. Unhappily, the musical choices sometimes let the side down. Nathan Wang’s background score is okay, but the periodic insertion of pop tunes, especially in the first half of the picture, to bolster a series of all-too-familiar montages, grows old fast. Can we at least agree to retire the theme from the old Mary Tyler Moore show for awhile? It’s been way overused of late anyway, but it certainly doesn’t deserve the brassy rendition that Joan Jett and the Blackhearts give it here.

“She’s the Man” is obvious and cute in the way of so many teen comedies, but it’s brighter and quicker on its feet than most. Maybe that’s because of a cast and crew who are more adept than most. Or perhaps it’s best explained by looking at the source. The movie may say less about being yourself than proof that if you’re a screenwriter who’s going back to high school, it might not be a bad idea to look to the Bard–or Jane Austen (“Clueless”) for inspiration. There’s a reason they’ve endured, after all.