Very Good Romantic Comedy

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2018)

Shakespeare's "The Taming Of The Shrew" is the basis for "10 Things I Hate About You," a fun, sweet, romantic-comedy that has a surprising amount of substance. Julia Stiles plays the "shrew," a highly intelligent teen who is fiercely independent and speaks her mind at all times. So what's the problem? Well, her sister is a social butterfly who wants to date but isn't allowed to by the father...unless Stiles also dates. The father's idea is that Stiles will never date, and so the other daughter won't either, and neither of them will do any crazy, sexual things with boys.
But two young men - one of whom is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt - desperately want to date Stiles' sister; and so both of them work up a scheme to have a fearless, bad boy in their school (played by Heath Ledger) to ask out Stiles. Typical of a rom-com, the lead romantic couple "meet cute," they start to really like each other, then a monkey wrench gets tossed into the situation that can potentially mess everything up.
My most memorable, movie moment of "10 Things I Hate About You" is the scene when Stiles gets up in front of her English class and reads a poem that is basically a list of things she hates about Ledger. It was the most poignant part of the movie as well as showing the wonderful talent of Stiles.
What sets "10 Things I Hate About You" apart from the typical, teen rom-com are: solid, three-dimensional characters of Ledger, Stiles and Gordon-Levitt; very clever dialogue dished out by Stiles; the two lead characters are very likeable; and the great chemistry between Stiles and Ledger. It took me almost 20 years to finally see this movie, and now I know why it is so popular.
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