rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 1999
Directed by Gil Junger; produced by Andrew Lazar; written by Karen McCullah Lutz, Kirsten Smith
Starring Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gorden-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, Gabrielle Union, Allison Janney
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'10 Things I Hate About You' is a movie we have seen so many times before,
containing all the usual clichés, but somehow works because of its stars
Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. Loosely based on Shakespeare's 'The Taming of
the Shrew' this is a high school comedy that understands you need to use the
stars in a nice way to get away with the flaws. The movie introduces Kat
(Julia Stiles) and Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik). Kat is beautiful but
hated by most people because of her strange "I hate it all"-attitude, her
younger sister Bianca is beautiful too, and loved by pretty much every guy
in school. Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one of those guys and he wants
to take her to the prom. There are two small problems. Macho Joey (Andrew
Keegan) likes the girl too (1), and she can not go to the prom because her
sister is not going (2). Their father has a rule that Bianca can go out only
when her sister does that, the prom is no exception. Cameron and his friend
Michael (David Krumholtz) make up a plan where they suggest to Joey that he
has to pay someone to take Kat to the prom. Joey likes the idea and he hires
Pat Verona (Heath Ledger) who, of course, falls in love with Kat for real.
We know certain things will happen, we know who will end up with whom, but
why bother if it is done in a nice way?
What is nice about it? Well, some jokes are nice, but that is only one
thing. I almost always like Stiles (just do not watch 'The Prince & Me') who
is more like a normal girl than an actress and here I have to admire Ledger
and the strange sweetness he brings to his smile. If I was a girl, I would
probably like that guy. The Bianca vs. Joey vs. Cameron plot is another nice
thing. In a way it is only there to support the main storyline that involves
Kat and Pat, but it gets enough screen time to become nice itself. And then
there are the supporting characters. Krumholtz does an accident job as
Cameron's sidekick getting a lot of laughs. I also liked a study counselor
played by Allison Janney and a teacher named Mr. Morgan (Daryl Mitchell).
They have the scenes with the hardest laughs. In the end this is nothing
more than a charming high school comedy. It is simple, yes, but if you have
to pick one from this genre you might as well give this one a chance.