10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
A film Review by Mark O'Hara
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Shakespeare is spinning in his grave.
Picture this figure of speech. It's not so much poetic as graceless and gross, much like Gil Junger's 10 Things I Hate About You, a film loosely based on the Bard's The Taming of the Shrew.
Here's the premise: two beautiful sisters living in Washington state stand for opposite worldviews – one superficial and pleasure-seeking, the other feminist and intelligent. The position of Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik), peeved that she is not allowed to date boys, worsens when her obstetrician father changes the rule. Now Bianca can date only when Kat dates! This seems unlikely, as Kat is the shrew of Shakespeare's title, a determined little termagant who shuns guys only after she has mentally outshone them. Here now – complications. At wit's end, Bianca exploits a boy with a crush on her, a new kid in school named Cameron (Joseph Gordon Levitt). In a convoluted series of schemes, a handsome bad boy (Patrick Verona, played by Heath Ledger) is paid to woo Kat. Hence Bianca is free to date the slimy Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan), although she had suggested she'd be dating Cameron in return for his favor.
Still with it? The basic love stories are promising, especially a minor one involving a friend of Cameron's and a friend of Kat's. But the turns of romantic plot are too predictable, and the resulting relationships fall flat. How can viewers believe a repulsive young man like Verona can become a desirable, even noble character? Does Bianca truly overcome her shallowness and attain a mantle of decency? And most crucially, why is the shrew tamed so relatively easily? Heaps of questions occur to the watcher of this film.
Julia Stiles is the most striking cast member, and does a strong job portraying Kat's feminist bent. Karen McCullah Lutz's screenplay, though, casts Kat as a closet Barbie, ready to comply when she is pleased. A strong facial resemblance helps Oleynik in being convincing as the sister. Oleynik is fine as Bianca, especially in portraying the occasional shallowness that is such a strong contrast to Kat's cultural politics.
Larry Miller plays the father of Kat and Bianca as an overprotective buffoon. He's an undeveloped caricature about whom we ultimately care very little. Let it be enough to say that the writing has him telling us about his character, when real characters show themselves. Needless to say, his wife is missing from the scene. The result does not make us sympathize for the plight of his single parenthood, as much as it makes us wonder if screenwriters don't kill parents off just to have less characters to flesh out fully.
In a couple of small roles, David Leisure and Daryl Mitchell play teachers who add funny moments to the film. But the tones of their characterization again intrude, and the viewer wonders if she is watching realism or over-the-top camp. The filthy language and personal insults used by Mr. Morgan (Mitchell's teacher) are downright unbelievable. It's almost as though the film is trying to exaggerate in the same way the situations in Clueless were exaggerated – but 10 Things is much less successful.
The film's faults are many. For one, Budweiser must have paid dearly for product placement. How advisable is it, however, to place your product in the hands of hundreds of actors playing underage drinkers? Another, larger flaw is the sense of irresponsibility. Again and again the youngsters peopling the film do nasty things to each other and fail to pay for them. From silly schtick – Bianca shooting her coach with an arrow – to major deception, 10 Things I Hate About You reinforces the notion that horrible behaviors often don't carry consequences. Yes, there are the conventions of teen movies: references to sex, scanty clothing (enough navels, already!) and endless sight gags. Not that a film must be politically correct, but this one also points out several cliques, poking fun at each of them. The satire is done nicely, but in the end the tone is less than tolerant. Oh, besides Mitchell, there is one African-American actress, Gabrielle Union, as one of Bianca's shallow friends. The lack of diversity is one shortcoming, but it's the film's careless accenting of reckless attitudes that crosses the line from harmless fluff to become offensive drivel. In the current flood of teen-oriented films, when is a director going to respect this line?
The tie-in with Shakespeare is what drew my attention. No similar relation exists with the spate of new teen flicks. So for the millions of moviegoers not targeted by filmmakers exploiting this genre, do not hesitate to miss them. Even the use of Good Will could not add weight to this piece; come on, how much more lightness do the young people of the world need?
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