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Teening of 'The Shrew'
by CarlosC (movies profile)
Jul 11, 2007
14
of
14 people found this review helpful
You've seen SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. Now, get ready for Shakespeare In High School. The Bard's "Taming of the Shrew" comes to the screen in the form of the teenage romantic-comedy, 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, about a boy ("3rd Rock from the Sun"'s Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who schemes to date the girl he likes (Larisa Oleynik) by finding a match for her unpopular older sister (Julia Stiles). The girls' father (Larry Miller) has decreed that his youngest daughter (Oleynik) will not date until her anti-social, older sister (Stiles) does so.
Gone from Shakespeare's tale is the talk of female submission. Notably absent is anything resembling a famous speech by the older sister in Act V of the play that begins, "Such duty as the subject owes the prince...a woman oweth to her husband." Instead, the older sister here talks of Sylvia Plath and Feminist liberation. Add a lot of loud music and contemporary slang, and don't forget a monster party scene, and a big prom-night finale. Now, you've got yourself an updated version of Shakespeare for the 90s.
10 THINGS opens with such dismissible fluff that a substantial and enjoyable movie sort of sneaks up on you. Particularly well-done was the artificial relationship between the older sister and a rebellious tough kid (Heath Ledger) who is paid to take her out to facilitate the scheme of the younger sister's suitor. When the tough guy really falls for the jaded loner, we really want the relationship to blossom. 10 THINGS also handles well the sibling rivalry between an older sister and a younger sister who are truly differently-developing people, struggling with comparisons to one another.
10 THINGS' intended audience will probably be unaware that it is a Shakespeare adaptation. With its contemporary, hip script by Karen McCullah Lutz, the movie ought to function well as a comedy about high school antics. The sisters are somewhat reminiscent of the sisters in MTV's "Darla;" a bookish, morose high school senior, and her slightly air-headed, cute younger sister. Heath Ledger also has a Roberto Benigni moment with with a marching band in the school soccer field. Additional ingredients, like the usual nerds and jocks factions, and odd-ball grown-ups (like a trashy story-writing school counselor), round-out the generic party-movie ensemble.
Adults should recognize 10 THINGS as a superior offering from the microcosm of high school (which Kurt Vonnegut called "closer to the core of the American experience than anything else I can think of"). 10 THINGS offers teenagers a serious portrayal of their lives -- their epic struggles and adventures -- as valid and worthy material for a comedy of Shakespearean proportions. For, the world stage is never as portentous as it seems on prom night.
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