A bit generic and predictable at times, but the charming young cast makes it work

Rating: 6/10 (9 December 2016)

"10 Things I Hate About You" is an American movie from 1999, so this one will soon have its 20th anniversary. The director is Gil Junger and the two writers are Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. For the trio, this is probably their most known work, even if "Legally Blonde" is nothing too shabby either. The story in this 1999 movie is also connected to a Shakespeare work. Anyway, looking at the cast, this film we have here is also for them a contender for most known work, except for Ledger perhaps where it's gotta be the late actor's Oscar-winning work. But it is especially true for Styles and Oleynik and probably also for Allison Janney and Larry Miller who I recognized. I myself really loved to see Larisa Oleynik in here as I have been a big Alex Mack fan for a long time. I don't mind Stiles at all, but there's no way she'd have gotten my preference over Oleynik's character. I'm with JGL on this one. It still makes me a bit sad to see her career peak at that point already. That's how much I like her.
This 90-minute film is a bit of cult classic now and even younger generations still know it, even if some of them have not even been alive when it came out. I cannot really see why though. The characters are not really written with a whole lot of depth and they are either 100% good guys or bad guys. And with "good guys", I am referring to all the 4 people at the center of the film. Maybe the film's popularity comes a bit from the fact how cool and likable they all are, even if they may be very different. And then there is the romance aspect of course and I can see all these girls falling for Ledger's character the way he fell for Stiles'. The story sadly is nothing too amazing either and the character transformations all feel a bit for the sake of it and not really that authentic. But I don't blame them. I guess they did what they had to do to get this movie into all kinds of teenage hearts and in many of these, it has its safe place until today.
This is really the epitome of a generic, yet charming, teenage-oriented movie that is a mix of comedy (sometimes working well, sometimes not at all), romance, drama, coming-of-age and relationships between teenagers and parents that most audience members could really relate to as they've been through similar scenarios themselves already. All in all, to me the most memorable aspects were probably the three protagonists and JGL to a lesser extent, but also because of how generic and forgettable he was written. It is a bit of an omission how the story of his and Oleynik's character moved further and further to the background the longer the film went as all the focus is on the other soon-to-be couple. And yes it is a very predictable film. If there was anything ever in doubt, then maybe only who would get together with whom and maybe JGL's character possibly getting together with Stiles eventually because the story starts with him. I did not like the way the film speaks negatively about Oleynik's character on several occasions. She is not promiscuous or so, just a regular teenage girl and you can't blame her (not even you, Heath) for not being such a different person than her sister. She is what 95% of girls are. But she still stands out just like every one of these 95% do because everybody is a unique individual. I would not call this one a unique film (or on the level of "Mean Girls",) but it is still a relatively good work overall and definitely worth seeing once. I give it a thumbs-up and suggest you check it out.