10 Things I Hate About You DVD > Reviews > 10 things I hate about you

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	high - spirited, effervescent bard frolics !
Disadvantages:	not so amusing as the original

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

10 Things I Hate About You is a liberal adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy "The Taming Of The Shrew" set in the teen scene of the 1990s. Unlike the Amy Heckerling picture,Clueless, which breezily redid Austen's 'Emma' without drawing overt attention to itself, this picture not only winks at the Bard, but gives a full-out bow to its antecedent - with characters named Stratford and Verona attending Padua High, dialogue excerpts lifted directly from his plays, sonnet writing and a peripheral character obsessed with Shakespeare, it's hard to miss the connection even if the picture's tagline wasn't "How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways."

Using the play as a jumping point, the picture introduces Stratford sisters Katarina (Julia Stiles) and Bianca (Larisa Oleynik), whose attitudes towards the social scene are at polar extremes -- Bianca's bubbly and wildly popular, while tempestuous Kat is a hard-line feminist who's indifferent to peer acceptance. Much to Bianca's dismay, both of them are forbidden to date by decree of their overprotective father (Larry Miller), who tweaks the longstanding rule at the beginning of the picture to allow her to date once her older sister finds a suitor as well. "But she's a mutant!" Bianca cries. "What if she never dates?" Anxious to woo Bianca, two dueling suitors -- model Joey (Andrew Keegan) and nice guy Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) -- embark on a scheme to set up the notoriously hostile Kat with a new boyfriend, and resort to the outlawish new bad boy in town, Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger).

The reworking of the story becomes rather creaky at times, and the 'teen film' formula providing the support for this revised tale is glaringly apparent; we can count on the party scene, the prom sequence, and the heartwrenching break-up and warm fuzzy reconciliation scenes to make their appearances; it's all inevitable material played in routine fashion.

It's almost certainly the romantic angle between the two leads which carry the film, far more so than the broad and often juvenile comedy which typifies the remainder of the picture. Stiles, who has the movie's plum role as the "shrewish" Kat and turns in a noteworthy performance brimming with intelligence, has nice chemistry with the likeable Ledger, and the relationship which emerges is entirely predictable yet appealing. After setting the wheels in motion, the uncompelling romantic triangle involving Joey, Bianca and Cameron fades into the background as the volatile courtship between Kat and Patrick develops.

10 Things I Hate About You is a high-spirited, effervescent movie full of life which, while not quite as touching as it's meant to be nor nearly as funny as it ought to be (the outtakes during the credits are as amusing as anything in the film itself), is a pleasant, if totally forgettable, diversion.