Funny, she doesn't look Shrewish.

Rating: 8/10 (13 April 2004)

I was surprised with this movie. Finally, a modern teen movie of some merit, not all the obnoxious themes and insipid story lines. I wouldn't mind, however, seeing a teen movie in which the characters don't live in massive upper-middle class homes and attend schools that span a city. Can't the folks in these movies just survive without a Rob Reiner-esque neighborhood?

While so many reviews have been posted already, there's no point in going into much detail about the plot, as it does get quite involved. Based on Shakespear's Taming of the Shrew, the movie is a romantic comedy about hard lessons learned by it's young characters. Appearances aren't always everything, you know. It is quite a sincere movie, actually showing intelligent teenagers working out their own kinks while in search of true love, and not boggled down by two hours of simply trying to get laid (though that may be Joey Donner's (Andrew Keegan) sole motive for living).

It's quite a funny movie that introduced me to both Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. Levitt, Oleynik, Keegan, and Krumholtz have been performing since they were kids. Since this movie, I find it interesting that Stiles has appeared in quite a few other Shakespeare adaptations. Nonetheless, the movie has a lot of fresh faces, a good soundtrack (if only they put that techno song just before the real party starts at Bogie's on the CD).

Anyways, it's a movie that is well worth seeing, especially when you've had enough servings of your crap teen comedies these days.