A new kid must find a guy to date the meanest girl in school, the older
sister of the girl he has a crush on, who cannot date until her older
sister does.
Director: Gil Junger
Writers:
Karen McCullah,
Kirsten Smith
Stars: Heath Ledger,
Julia Stiles,
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Storyline
Adapted from William Shakespeare's play "The Taming of the Shrew," 10
Things I Hate About You starts off with Cameron, new student at Padua
High, sitting in the office of the quirky guidance counselor Ms. Perky.
He is then shown around the school by Michael, who will become his best
friend. During his tour is when Cameron first sees Bianca Stratford, a
beautiful sophomore with one problem: she isn't allowed to date. And
neither is her "shrew" sister, Katarina, a senior who loves indie rock
and feminist prose and hates conformity. But Kat and Bianca's father
alters his house rule: now, Bianca can date... as long as Kat has a
date, too. Now, in order for Cameron to date Bianca, he has to find
someone to date Kat. So Michael helps him enlist the help of
pretty-boy/jerk/model Joey Donner, tricking him into thinking that *he*
will get to take Bianca out if he pays someone to take out Kat. His
choice: Patrick Verona, a bad-boy with a mysterious reputation--some say
he ate a live duck once.
10 Things I Hate About You Movie Reviews
When
hiring this movie was first suggested I turned up my nose at it. I
thought, another teenagers flick where the hottest guy in school has to
appreciate a lesser unpopular chick etc etc etc. Since seeing it it has
enterred my all time favourites list. Any old somebody can take the
formula of The Taming of the Shrue and put it into a school yard, and
any old somebody can avoid cle she's in the finer details, coming up
with decent alternatives is the hard part, whatever they did here works
like clockwork. I would easily give it the best teen flick mantle.
Firstly,
the acting is perfect, the roles are not overly demanding but Julia
Stiles and Heath Ledger play this to perfection. The supporting cast is
great aswell, there is not a soul that doesn't contribute to the
perfection of it all. Realism is neither what they were really going for
nor what makes the movie. The language and vocabulary of these kids is
phenominal, words like, Vapid, Pensive, Hanus, Tempestuous, Miscreants.
There are lots of words like these throughout the movie. It is the thing
that does the most to enable adult enjoyment.
For once they
avoided the school bully theme, the bad guy in this is just a model who
the chicks like and some of the guys hang with and alot of others just realize he is a fool. The recessive geek role is this time given a lot
more credibility, he is given the majority of the genuinely witty one
liners and finds a soul mate for himself, instead of them just making it
a joke that he stays a joke. There are a few parts you can really cheer
in, you have to watch it to appreciate them. There is truly never a
dull moment.
The best quote of the whole movie would have to be
"it's just an excuse for all the nerds at our school to rub up against
each other to distract themselves from the pathetic emptiness of their
meaningless consumer driven lives" that pretty much sums up the purpose
of teen parties these days. For once you actually identify with the
"bitch" role in this, both she and the guy that is falsely pursuing her
take a backward step, usually when it comes time for the leading man to
apolagise for his deceit you really cant believe him after they have
focused for so long on his efforts, this time for some reason you do, it
fits straight into the story. There is another half to that situation
here as well but I wont disclose, it is probably the best bit of the
movie.
And the last major point is that this time the father
character is a hell of alot stronger than before, if that had been weak
so would the rest of the movie have been, but he is not. He has a reason
for being there and you identify with him as well. It is clear to see
they were making the characters all strong in their own right and
stronger than the actual story.
To sum it all up the characters,
story and acting are all perfect, adults can enjoy this one as well, also
because the main relationships are more stable and adult than the
unpredictability of true teenage relationships, if they can be called
such. So here is the count.
