10 Things I Hate About You
Movie Review by Sidra Roberts
William Shakespeares Taming of the Shrew has been the subject to several well written remakes i.e. Kiss Me Kate and now 10 Things I Hate About You is joining the ranks. First glance at the cast and your instincts say teeny-bopper movieeeeew!! With the likes of Andrew Keegan, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Larisa Oleynik, who are all big in the teeny-bopper circle and Heath Ledger, who is obviously going to steal the adoration of several female teens and pre-teens, one initially might draw the conclusion there is no real acting in this. Honestly that is not the case, the acting is quite good. Not to mention the writer is an absolute genious.
Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) is a "mutant breed of loser." Shes strong, idealistic, bright, independent and utterly out of place in Padua High a.k.a. Narcissism High. Her sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) is Little Miss Popularity. All the guys want her, what does she have? That oh-so-sheik shallowness out the rear end thing going. Theyre father (Larry Miller) comes up with an brilliant plan. Bianca cant date until Kat does. " But shes a mutant. What if she never dates?" "Then youll never date. Oh I like this idea."
New kid in school Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) upon first sight falls madly in lust in Bianca. He then devises a way to get to meet her. Bianca needs a French tutor. "Does you speak french?"(Camerons friend, Micheal) "No, but I will"(Cameron). So, he starts tutoring Bianca and he discovers the deal with her father. So, he then starts looking for a date for the anti-social Kat. He decides upon Patrick Verona( Heath Ledger), a guy most of the school doesnt know anything about just that hes big and dangerous.
Micheal(David Krumholtz) and Cameron conclude that the only way to get Patrick to take Kat out is to pay him, but they dont have any money. So, they go to Joey Donner ( Andrew Keegan), tube sock model and the epitome of narcissism itself, and they convince him that its his idea. Oh yes, Joey also has the hots for Bianca and is essentially interested in getting into her pants. And thus, they game begins.
Now, that Ive gotten all that icky plot stuff out of the way, I can comment some more. The acting in this is just superb. The main characters are wonderfully done. Kat and Patrick were great roles and you could tell Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger were having a blast playing them. Cameron and Bianca were two of the underdeveloped charcters I felt. Cameron more so than Bianca because Bianca changed to actually appearing to have some brains near the end. Despite the lack of substantiality in their charcters Both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Larisa Oleynik did awesome jobs. There are times you want Kat to just grab Bianca and swing her around by her hair and there are times you find yourself uncontrollably cheeering for her. You have to back Cameron all the way through. You JUST have to, especially with what the alternative is. Speaking of the alternative Andrew Keegan did a beautiful job of playing that stuck on himelf jerk that you love to hate.
The main cast makes the movie stellar, but the supporting class fills the picture and have some of the best lines within the whole movie. Larry Miller, Bianca and Kats father, plays one of those great one-sided overprotective father whos ideas border of the point of inanity, but still manages to be one of the most lovable characters in the movie. The school guidance counsellor Ms. Perky (Allison Janney) is an absolute scream and Mr. Malcom( Daryll "Chill" Mitchell) is just great.
The movie is overall hilarious and every bit as entertaining as I hoped it would be. One key thing you need to do when you go see it is stay for all the credits. There are some downright gut-busting outakes at the end. Im glad we waited just to see if there were any, because theyre even funnier than the stuff in the movie.
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