Ten Things I Hate About You

 Success or Failure?

            Things I Hate About You is a teen movie inspired from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The movie plot revolves around Cameron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and his sudden newfound love for Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik) that develops on his first day at school. However, she cannot date until her unpopular and strong willed sister, Kat, (Julia Stiles) dates. Cameron conceives a plan that involves the manipulation of people and their emotions. Cameron tries to convince a fellow classmate to look for another willing student to romance Kat Stratford in exchange for money. Cameron eventually found Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to do the task. However, Verona realizes that he has fallen in love with Kat after spending time with Kat. The plot develops in a typical teen movie fashion: both couples have trouble with their relationship after seemingly perfect interactions and they make up. However, Kat and Verona’s love problems occur after Bianca and Cameron’s make up portion of the movie.

The plot has many more problems without considering its banal and clichéd characteristics. Many would argue that the movie has the lack of influence from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, even though the movie was supposed to be inspired by it. Another problem is the underdevelopment of the characters. For example, a few important questions were raised about certain character’s traits that were poorly answered or not answered at all. What prevented Verona from kissing Kat? Was it his guilt or a past event? The character’s development seemed too shallow, thus causing the audience’s alienation from the characters. On the other hand, Stiles, Oleynik, and Gordon-Levitt gave solid performances in their respective roles, while Ledger's excellent acting overshadows the rest. There were also several scenes that provided enough amusement to hide the poor plot. For example, the counselor provided hilarious situations with her strange obsession with sexual subjects. Verona’s performance of “I love you baby'' over the P.A. system, to win back Kat’s affection was hilarious. Another comical scene occurred when Kat Stratford vomits on Verona’s shoes after complimenting him on his eyes.

In conclusion, when watching Ten Thing I Hate About You, people should ignore the poorly conceived plot and appreciate the performances and amusing scenes. The great scenes make any audience smile and laugh. The solid performances would make any critic impressed. Thus, these two factors distracts from the terrible plot.