The Taming of a Modern Shrew

Rating: Null/10 (25 August 2016)

Seventeen years later, Ten Things I Hate About You still strikes a chord with audiences. 423 years later, The Taming of the Shrew continues to hold relevance to the modern population. An adaptation of the famous Shakespeare play, Ten Things I Hate About You (directed by Gil Junger) illustrates the story about the popular high-school sweetheart Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) being told she is unable to date until her independent, rebellious, "shrew" of an elder sister Katherine "Kat" (Julia Stiles) does. Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Michael (David Khumoltz) plot with Joey (Andrew Keegan) to convince Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to go out with Kat so Bianca is free to date.
The plot line closely resembles that of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew where Bianca is informed by her father she cannot marry until her older sister—"the untamable shrew" — Kat does. However, the film takes a modern spin, changing it to fit the frame of high school teenagers. In the play, Kat is untamable through her independence and outspoken nature, just as her character is in the film. Three men wish to woo Bianca, but two, Hortensio and Gremio, are deceived by Lucentio, the third, who dresses up as Bianca's tutor to gain her love. The three then band together to observe Petruccio's attempt to tame Kat in order to free Bianca. Although a triad of Joey, Cameron, and Michael plot for Kat to be wooed in the film as well, her "Petruccio", Patrick, is paid by Joey to take her on a date. Cameron convinces Joey to pay for Patrick's rendezvous by pretending he will end his pursuit of Bianca to give Joey a clear opportunity.
Gil Junger successfully transforms the humor and social class marriage struggles of The Taming of the Shrew into a modernized, relevant version of high school dating, social status, and teenage angst in Ten Things I Hate About You.