Armed with noble intentions and the endearing comic goofiness of Amanda Bynes, the comedy Sydney White nevertheless fails to be convincing. The movie's gimmick is to model the the titular heroine's freshman year experience on the story of "Snow White," where her fairest-of-them-all rival is a sorority queen, played by Sara Paxton, and the fellows who take her in are the campus outcasts -- you see, the film was almost named "Sydney White and the Seven Dorks" (and each of the seven can even be mapped to Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, etc.).

The goal of the movie, in keeping with Bynes's role as the anti-party-princess, is to celebrate geek revolution, where the marginalized groups of students have their day against the oppressive Greek elite. But whether due to lazy writing or the exaggeration of the comedy, the seven dorks are mostly stereotypical, their lifestyles and interests (as usual, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings-centric) more of a parody reflecting what mainstreamers might think nerds are like, rather than what a true geek might know it to be like (this is kind of a surprise, since the director, Joe Nussbaum, got on the map with his short, the geeky "George Lucas in Love"). This mainly hurts the film in that it makes jokes of the people we're ultimately supposed to side with; and, as the story progresses, the dorks and the outsider groups that align with them actually feel more and more like cardboard.

We do have Bynes, appealing as usual, but not given much room in the script here to stretch her comedic chops. But here's to Amanda anyway -- she's a young actress who does honest work, and I still look forward to a perfect vehicle for her down the line. (Capsule review)

(Released by Universal Pictures and rated "PG-13" for some language, sexual humor and partying.)

Review also posted at ww.windowtothemovies.com .