10 Things I Hate About You

Set in Padua High School, Seattle, “10 Things I Hate About You,” another dazzling reinvention of Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew,” is a crazed rollercoaster of teenage-love, parties and the slightly-more-than-often rude or inappropriate commentary.“10 Things I Hate About You” starts off with timid yet likeable Cameron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is a new student at Padua High. During his tour, he sets his eyes on beautiful social butterfly Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik) and falls instantly head-over-heels for her. There are a few problems though. For one thing, Bianca is dying to go out with the school’s dreamboat Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan), and he wants her too, albeit for ulterior purposes. Another is that family rules forbid Bianca from dating until her older sister Kat (Julia Stiles) finds a boyfriend. Simple? No. Kat is the exact opposite of her sister Bianca, who wants for nothing more than to be popular. The intimidating, straight A student is a raging nonconforming feminist who doesn’t date and cringes at the ludicrous lives of her peers.In response to this, Joey pays the school’s bad boy, Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger), who was rumored to have eaten a live duck, to take Kat out. However, Kat wants nothing to do with him. As the days go by, Patrick slowly develops genuine feelings for Kat; predictable, but to his own surprise, deceptions, lies and people’s true colors are revealed.It’s quite easy for anyone to take the general plot and theme of “The Taming of the Shrew” and throw it into any movie. In fact, in my opinion, it’s quite the clichéd theme. However, the entire cast of the movie pull it together perfectly. For a “teen-flick” it is quite witty and clever in itself but it is clearly forced. Paralleling Shakespeare, throughout the movie, the kids’ vocabulary was definitely unusual for everyday conversations. Cameron quotes Shakespeare when he first sees Bianca. “I burn. I pine. I perish.” Even Ledger’s “dumb brute” of a character is quite the poetry-enthusiast. It was clear that realism wasn’t something the directors were shooting for.The role Julia Stiles plays isn’t an overly-demanding one—a hard-hearted girl who is eventually tamed; however, she plays it to perfection. Her clever retorts and comments are stinging and well-delivered. Occasionally, streaks of vulnerability and sweetness leak into her cruel demeanor. Different as she is from her sister, she clearly loves her very much and even she is susceptible to a guy’s honest, heartfelt attempts at breaking down her walls. At many times, she made me feel bad about myself, laugh, and feel pity for other characters.The same can be said for Ledger. He doesn’t over exaggerate his bad-boy persona. At the right times, he is unfeelingly cold quite like Kat. Other times he’s quite humorous, calculating and serious. His idea of “courting” or impressing Kat was taking charge of the school band and a bunch of amps and singing Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.” In his own way, he is a “pretty” boy.As for its originality as a teen-flick, it finally let go of the school bully theme even though it did end in a prom. Joey is just the kid who thinks he’s too good to be true.All in all, I think “10 Things I Hate About You” is an excellent movie. You will “burn, pine and perish” every second you see the movie and every second after. 10 stars for 10 Things.