10 Things I Hate About You

Yet another teen flick that ends at the Prom! But still 10 Things I Hate About You is lively enough to be reasonably appealing. And at no stage were 10 things listed about anyone! That bit must have hit the edit room floor. This is pretty familiar territory. Boy likes girl. She doesn't like him. Someone is bribed to go out with someone he doesn't like. He falls for her. She finds out. You get the idea. There's a Shakespearean spin on this version though. There's a shrew and so we have a taming of the shrew. The school is called Padua High and the shrew is called Kat and her surname is Stratford. But really it would be stretching it to call this Shakespeare and most of its intended audience wouldn't even notice. Full marks for Padua High though. The buildings really look stunning and are used to great effect, especially in a final pan with surprise, surprise, a rock band on the roof. And would that band notice or care about the over reactive acting style that infects these types of films? They probably wouldn't because most teenagers are like this in the company of their peers. Under developed personalities are by definition shallow, even if this trait is amply compensated for by enthusiasm and embarrassment. But I still couldn't help wonder how actors who are obviously adults can hope to pull off the idea that they are children in these films. There aren't too many school age actors who can pull off mature acting performances. There aren't that many actors like Natalie Portman, Winona Ryder, Juliette Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio; who have had the magic touch at a suitably young age. 10 Things I Hate About You hasn't revealed any more of these either. They didn't even try. In particular Australian actor Heath Ledger looked unlikely to be of school age. And when he slides back into his school desk after a night out drinking and playing pool with his bikie mates, well it seemed a bit rich. But that's all irrelevant, especially since school agers seeing the film would probably much rather see someone who's as adult as Heath playing the hero anyway. Why aspire to pimples? Anyway the dialogue is smart, the school looks good, the music is bouncy and the characters are interesting in spite of their shallowness.

'10 Things I Hate About You' is pretty much a typical teen movie that has nothing new to offer. It follows all those clichés about girl not liking guy in the beginning, guy woos her, girl likes him, there's a conflict, guy and girl split and then girl likes him again. Said to be based on 'The Taming Of The Shrew', this adaptation is fairly week and it would easily be lost among the dozens of forgettable teen films. However, it does have its funny moments. Plus, the chemistry between the actors makes some scenes work. The cast does work in favour. Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt do quite well. Larisa Oleynik and Julia Stiles irritate a lot in the beginning but in the latter half of the film, they improve. Allison Janney is a scene stealer as the principal/aspiring erotic novel writer. It is not a bad movie by any means, just not a very good one.