Cute tweens aside, 'Zoey' movie is formulaic fluff

March 10, 2006|Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff

It's telling, and a little bit scary, that the modern tween fantasy involves being on a reality show.

That, at least, is the dream scenario in Nickelodeon's ''Zoey 101: Spring Break-Up." Based on ''Zoey 101," the top TV series among 9- to 14-year-olds, it stars Jamie Lynn Spears -- 14-year-old clone of big sister Britney -- as a student at a fictional boarding school.

Zoey has a slightly dour look, an endless assortment of adorable tops, and a very rich classmate who invites his friends to his dad's fabulous Santa Barbara mansion, complete with British butler. Dad, a TV producer, asks the kids to test a game show that pits the boys against the girls. In a development that makes little logical sense but does figure into the plot, they're all given nifty gizmos for their ample text messaging needs.

It's a slightly depressing display of materialism run amok. And it's only partly redeemed by a side plot about unrequited love involving Zoey and her best friend, a lovable nerd named Chase (Sean Flynn). Were it not blissfully chaste, it wouldn't be so different from a running story line on ''Grey's Anatomy." If nothing else, tween TV is preparing kids for a lifetime of formula dramas.

The trouble is, Zoey and her crew are not the most compelling gang on TV. At the risk of betraying my gender, I'll say that the boys are more appealing than the girls, who, aside from Spears, don't seem to do much besides shriek.

Flynn and actor Christopher Massey, at least, are cute to watch; they may well have budding comedic careers. Alas, Paul Butcher, as Zoey's brother Dustin, does a little bit too well channeling Oliver from ''The Brady Bunch."

It's not a reference most tweens might get, but it's undeniable: ''Zoey 101" is a weird amalgam of '60s sensibility, '70s hair, and '80s clothes. Zoey, in fact, is almost the only character who doesn't look as if she's stepped out of a period piece.

That's the best that can be said about her, since Spears is not quite an acting virtuoso. In acknowledgment, perhaps, the script doesn't give her much to do. It's hard to imagine why Chase would be in love with her, except for the fact that she looks so much like Britney.

To a boy of a certain age, that still apparently means a lot.

Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com.