Sep 30, 2001 07:46 AM
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My sister loved this movie, but I was definitely ambivalent about renting it in my house. My husband is a diehard action movie fan, the more explosions and bullet holes, the better. I also figured my sons would probably head to the back of the house to loot the bathroom vanity drawers and get peanut butter and jelly handprints on my computer monitor while playing their Broderbund games to defeat the boredom.
Ambivalence was appropriate; to this day, I'm not sure whether I liked this movie as much as people said I would. To its credit, as a teenybopper flick, it isn't as vacuous as, let's say, ''American Pie.'' Yes, I said vacuous, I know it was funny, but there was no socially redeeming value to the whole violated pastry-sock-webcam-johnson thing that movie had going for it. But 10 Things was definitely ''dumbed down'' for people that have never read ''Taming of the Shrew'' during their senior year of college preparatory English Comp. The writers definitely had it in mind to make a younger audience feel like they were getting a dose of ''coolness'' watching this rather than ''culture.'' This movie is nothing like other Shakespeare-derived movies of the past decade (except perhaps ''O,'' due in theaters this fall, from what I could see of the previews, which also has Julia Stiles; whooopeee). Mel Gibson's ''Hamlet'' was true to the play as it was written, all the way down to Helena Bonham Carter babbling hysterically about pansies for thoughts to anyone she encountered in the courtyard before tossing herself into the river. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of my least favorite actors, but he was decent in ''Romeo and Juliet.'' If anything, I watched that for Clair Danes and John Leguizamo. But every word of Shakespeare's original dialogue was there, thrown out of the leads' mouths with jaunty aplomb.
This movie still isn't quite the same as the vacuous teenager movies that were popular when I was that age. My friends and I always got choked up over Andy socking Blaine in the shoulder and rushing out of the school in ''Pretty in Pink,'' or in Baby accusing her father of not really loving her for what she was in ''Dirty Dancing.'' Why that is, I don't know, we just did. That certain little heartwarming something was either missing or just too darned CONTRIVED in this movie.
Julia Stiles plays Kat, Padua High School's resident ornery, unpopular chick. Disregard that she looks like a Calvin Klein model (since she was one in a previous life), she's unpopular, doggone it. She just wants to get into a good college and blow that Popsicle stand. Her kid sister Bianca wants nothing more than to go to the prom and pretend that she is an only child; she's winningly played by Larisa Oleynik of Nickelodeon fame (''The Secret of Alex Mack''). Her character is cute but annoying, and I think this works.
Heath Ledger is wonderful as the ''Petruchio'' of this ''Shrew'' film, albeit a bit cheesy toward the end. I loved his sneer and his unruly hair. His Australian accent was pretty cool, too. Again, it worked, somehow.
The only way that Bianca will get to go to the dance with Cameron (played by Joseph Gordon Levitt of 3rd Rock) is if her sister goes, too; that's the house rule set forth by their father (a gynecologist, of all things) played by Larry Miller. I really liked him because he was silly but fatherly. So, Cameron's friend comes up with an idea; get a date for Kate, and get the coveted date with Bianca. Problem is, no one in Padua wants to have their head bitten off. Until Cameron and his matchmaking cohort accost Patrick (Ledger) in the cafeteria and make him a deal. The rest of the plot reminds you of every other romantic comedy where two unlikelies hit a few bumps before realizing they have the hots for each other.
The title of the movie comes from the beseeching and accusatory love poem that Kat reads during her writing class to an astonished Patrick after she finds out that he was paid to take her out. I almost liked the poem better than the rest of the writing in the movie!
The script isn't too inane, it just never quite stays true to the character's ages; the teenagers in this movie are either too junior high or too adult half the time. Julia Stiles is a bit bland in some spots. The screen kisses are okay, but there is no fire. Other things that were overdone were the stupid paintball scene, Heath Ledger singing to her at the football field, and Julia dancing drunkenly on a table at a party.
The other thing that is missing from this movie is the ''taming'' of Kat's bitterness and ire. She was never as abrasive as the writers of this movie would have you believe, so her being all weepy and poetic by the end of the movie didn't seem too genuine, or even all that welcome.
If you see this movie for any reason, make it for the ''eye candy'' value of the attractive cast, and for the comfortably reliable, comic talents of people like Larry Miller and David Krumholz (he plays Cameron's friend; he was also in ''Life with Mikey'' with Michael J. Fox).
