One up on Shakespeare

Rating: 7/10 (25 July 2002)

Gil Junger (and naturally the screen writers, Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith) have pulled off the impossible; they have made a smarter, sassier and altogether more likeable version of the Bard's "The Taming of the Shrew", up-dating it to an American High School on the eve of the millennium.
Maybe it was the nostalgic factor, (yeah, this was the High School 'prom' I went to here in Ireland some 30 years ago) but I think more appropriately it was a combination of terrific direction, great dialogue and first-rate acting (Heath Ledger has already proved his worth but Larisa Oleynik and David Krumholtz surely have major futures ahead of them) that made this such a pleasureable experience.
It isn't every Shakespearean play that lends itself to a modern up-dating (just because HE wrote it dosen't mean YOU have to do it) but one thing Americans are good at is comedy and the great one-liner (not to mention rock n'roll, of which this has a terrific smattering) and "10 Things ..." rocks, rolls and bounces with the best of them. It is also touching, moving and a lovely teen romance with characters you actually care about. I loved every heartfelt minute of it.