10 Things I Hate about You
USA 1999
Reviewed by Peter Matthews
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Padua, a Seattle suburb. New high-school student Cameron is smitten with fellow student Bianca, but her father Walter will only let her date once her shrewish sister Kat starts dating. Cameron resolves to find a boyfriend for Kat and settles on sullen Patrick Verona. Joey Donner agrees to bankroll the romance because he wants Bianca for himself. Kat repels Patrick's advances but Bianca relays information about Kat's taste for him.
Eventually Kat agrees to go with Patrick to a party so Cameron can take Bianca. At the party, Bianca ignores Cameron and goes after Joey. A drunken Kat is rescued by Patrick. Touched, she asks him to kiss her. When he declines, she's mortified. Disillusioned with Joey, Bianca asks Cameron to drive her home and kisses him. Patrick guiltily pockets $300 to escort Kat to the prom. Kat reveals to Bianca that she lost her virginity to Joey, who then ditched her. At the dance, Joey argues with Cameron and Kat overhears Joey talking about the cash paid to Patrick. She leaves hurt and angry. But later in English class, Kat recites a sonnet telling Patrick she can't help loving him. Both sisters end up with their true loves.
Review
In a scene from experienced TV director Gil Junger's 10 Things I Hate about You, an English teacher informs a class that Shakespeare is, "a dead white guy who knows his shit," before assigning his pupils the task of translating a Shakespearean sonnet into contemporary vernacular, resulting in the heartfelt bit of doggerel which gives the movie its title. Real-life mall rats are duly cautioned that what looks to be a standard teen flick is actually a Boring Old Classic in drag. Even worse, this bubblegum The Taming of the Shrew is meant to be good for you, though the screenwriters are smart enough to keep their stabs at youthful edification subliminal. Now and then, a flowery phrase from the original ("I burn, I pine, I perish") surfaces inscrutably amid such homelier locutions as, "remove head from sphincter, then drive." It's doubtful whether this 'reading is cool' subtext will trigger the intended response since in every other respect the movie has the artistic integrity of a Pop Tart. But if Shakespeare can be brought to the post-literate masses only by such clandestine means, The Taming of the Shrew is a logical choice. One of the weakest of the comedies, it gives stage and screen adapters plenty of elbow room to exploit the knockabout potential of the running war between termagant Kate and her bullying pacifier Petruchio. Junger strains to pump up the cartoon aggression with a paintball fight and an archery lesson where a teacher predictably gets it in the butt, yet somehow the requisite hard edge never develops.
10 Things clearly wouldn't have been made without the lucrative example of Clueless, itself based on Jane Austen's Emma. But that film showed more flair in mapping the social niceties of Regency England on to Beverly Hills. The revisionists here are hamstrung by a premise that doesn't ring true even in Shakespeare: the despotic paternal law which prohibits Bianca from dating until her elder sister does. Their solution is to concoct a soggy backstory about their father never being the same since his wife deserted him. This expedient prompts a round of conciliatory hugs at fade-out, as does Kat's climactic shocker that her misanthropy is due to a callous defloration. But the toughest nut to crack remains the antediluvian stance towards the heroine, compelled to eat crow in the play's notorious last scene. No prizes for guessing that Shakespeare's Ur-bitch becomes here a feisty advocate of girl power. Yet a measure of the Bard's conservatism seeps through insofar as this feminist loose cannon is ultimately restored to the value system represented by her high-school prom. Given the core constituency for the movie, its makers plainly recognise on which side their bread is buttered.
Credits
- Producer
- Andrew Lazar
- Screenplay
- Karen McCullah Lutz
- Kirsten Smith
- Director of Photography
- Mark Irwin
- Editor
- O. Nicholas Brown
- Production Designer
- Carol Winstead Wood
- Music
- Richard Gibbs
- ©Touchstone Pictures
- Production Companies
- Touchstone Pictures presents a Mad Chance/Jaret Entertainment production
- Executive Producers
- Jeffrey Chernov
- Seth Jaret
- Co-producer
- Jody Hedien
- Associate Producer
- Greg Silverman
- Production Co-ordinator
- Denise Heinrich
- Unit Production Manager
- Ross Fanger
- Location Managers
- Joseph Daniel Dusek Jr
- Peter Allen
- Assistant Directors
- K.C. Colwell
- Darin Rivetti
- Sally Sue Beisel
- Script Supervisor
- Nancy Karlin
- Casting
- Marcia Ross
- Donna Morong
- Gail Goldberg
- Associates:
- Julie Friedman
- Lisa Rochette
- Location:
- Heidi Walker
- ADR Voice:
- Barbara Harris
- Camera Operators
- Robin Buerki
- Helicopter:
- Steve Koster
- Steadicam Operator
- Robin Buerki
- Special Effects Co-ordinator
- William Casey Pritchett
- Additional Editor
- Skip Collector
- Art Director
- Gilbert Wong
- Set Decorator
- Charles M. Graffeo
- Scenic Artist
- Steven E. Eyrse
- Costume Designer
- Kimberly A. Tillman
- Costume Supervisor
- Alexandria Forster
- Key Make-up Artist
- Mel Berns
- Key Hair Stylist
- Pauletta Lewis-Irwin
- Main Titles Design/Production
- The Picture Mill
- Opticals
- Buena Vista Imaging
- Orchestrations
- Kevin Kliesch
- Richard Gibbs
- Executive Music Producer
- Ralph Sall
- Executive in Charge of Music, Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group
- Kathy Nelson
- Music Editors
- Shannon Erbe
- Nick South
- Score Recordist/Mixer
- Robert Fernandez
- Music Programmer
- Alfonso E. Chavez
- Soundtrack
- "One Week (Remix)" by Ed Robertson, performed by Barenaked Ladies; "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett, Kenny Laguna, Ritchie Cordell, Marty Kupersmith, performed by Joan Jett; "All My Life (Ignorants Remix)" by Rory Bennett, Joel Hailey, performed by K-Ci & JoJo; "Calypso" by Janet English, Damien Whitty, Mark Maher, performed by Spiderbait; "Get Em Outa Here" by Steve Summers, Sprung Monkey, performed by Sprung Monkey; "Sexy Boy" by Nicholas Godin, Jean Benoît Dunckel, performed by Air; "Soar" by Ralph Sall, performed by ATM; "C'Mon" by Greg McKenna, Kay Hanley, Scott Riebling, Michael Eisenstein, Stacy Jones, performed by Letters to Cleo; "Co-Pilot" by Greg McKenna, Scott Riebling, Kay Hanley, Michael Eisenstein, performed by Letters to Cleo; "Rondo Vivace, Piano Concerto #1" by Frédéric Chopin; "Dazz" by Ray Ransom, Edward Irons, Reginald Hargis, performed by Brick; "Word Up" by Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins, performed by Cameo; "Atomic Dog" by George Clinton Jr, Garry M. Shider, David L. Spradley, performed by George Clinton; "Push It" by Herbie Azor, performed by Salt 'N' Pepa; "Just Be Good to Me" by Terry Lewis, James Harris III, performed by The SOS Band; "Hypnotize" by Sean 'Puffy' Combs, Notorious B.I.G., Deric Angelettie, Ron Lawrence, Randy Badazz, Andy Armer, performed by The Notorious B.I.G., contains interpolations from the composition "La Di Da Di" by Ricky Walters, Douglas L. Davis; "Saturday Night" by Marti Sharron, Danny Sembello, Rodney Jerkins, performed by Ta-Gana; "Hold Me Now" by Alannah Currie, Joseph Leeway, Thomas Bailey, performed by The Thompson Twins; "Cruel to Be Kind" by Ian Robert Gomm, Nick Drain Lowe, performed by Letters to Cleo; "War" by Peter Svensson, Nina Persson, performed by The Cardigans; "Can't Get Enough of You Baby" by Denny Randell, Sandy Linzer, performed by The Colourfield; "Wings of a Dove" by Carl Smyth, Graham McPherson, performed by Madness; "The Weakness in Me" by/performed by Joan Armatrading; "New World" by/performed by Leroy; "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Bob Crewe, Bob Gaudio; "FNT" by Dan Wilson, Jacob Slichter, performed by Semisonic; "Your Winter" by Ken Block, Andrew Copeland, Ryan Newell, Jeff Beres, Mark Trojanowski, performed by Sister Hazel; "I Know" containing a sample of "Shout" by Michael Holton, Miré Molnar, Brian Mashburn, Ronald Isley, Rudolph Isley, O'Kelley Isley, performed by Save Ferris; "Can't Stop" by Brian Mashburn, performed by Save Ferris; "Even Angels Fall" by Tom Whitlock, Jessica Riddle, Kim Bullard, Penny Framstead, performed by Jessica Riddle; "I Want You to Want Me" by Rick Nelson, performed by Letters to Cleo
- Choreographers
- Marguerite Derricks
- Associate:
- Michelle Elkin
- Production Sound
- James Bayard Carey
- Re-recording Mixers
- Terry Porter
- Mel Metcalfe
- Dean A. Zupancic
- Sound Editors
- David Kern
- Nils Jensen
- Nancy MacLeod
- Dialogue Editor
- Albert Gasser
- Supervising Sound Effects
- Donald J. Malouf
- ADR
- Supervisor:
- Thomas G. Whiting
- Recordist:
- Jeannette Browning
- Mixer:
- Doc Kane
- Foley
- Co-ordinator:
- Rich Green
- Walkers:
- Gregg Barbanell
- Laura Macias
- Mixer:
- Scott Weber
- Dubbing Recordists
- Judy Nord
- Jeannette Cremarosa
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Ben Scott
- Helicopter Pilot
- Craig Hosking
- Cast
- Julia Stiles
- Katarina 'Kat' Stratford
- Heath Ledger
- Patrick Verona
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt
- Cameron James
- Larisa Oleynik
- Bianca Stratford
- Larry Miller
- Walter Stratford
- Andrew Keegan
- Joey Donner
- David Krumholtz
- Michael Eckman
- Susan May Pratt
- Mandella
- Gabrielle Union
- Chastity
- Daryl 'Chill' Mitchell
- Mr Morgan
- Allison Janney
- Ms Perky
- David Leisure
- Mr Chapin
- Greg Jackson
- Scurvy
- Kyle Cease
- Bogey Lowenstein
- Terence Heuston
- Derek
- Cameron Fraser
- Trevor
- Eric Reidman
- audio visual guy
- Quinn Maixner
- beautiful jock
- Demegio Kimbrough
- Todd Butler
- coffee kids
- Dennis Mosley
- Cohort
- Bianca Kajlich
- coffee girl
- Nick Vukelic
- drugged-out loser
- Benjamin Laurance
- wimpy loser
- Aidan Kennedy
- laughing loser
- Jelani Quinn
- crying loser
- Jesse Dyer
- screaming loser
- Aaron Therol
- detention student
- Carlos LaCamara
- bartender
- Heather Taylor
- drunken girl
- Joshua Thorpe
- jock
- J.R. Johnson
- MBY guy at party
- Wendy Gottlieb
- Heather
- Brian Hood
- Clem
- Travis Miller
- Cowboy
- Ari Karczag
- kissing guy
- Laura Kenny
- Judith
- Alice Evans
- perky girl
- Jesper Inglis
- Buckaroo bartender
- Nick Brown
- biker
- Monique Powell
- Brian Mashburn
- Save Ferris singers
- Kay Hanley
- Michael Eisenstein
- Letter to Cleo singers
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- Buena Vista International (UK)
- 8,775 feet
- 97 minutes 31 seconds
- BBFC cuts of 2 feet 1 frame
- Dolby digital/SDDS/Digital DTS sound
- In Colour
- Prints by
- Technicolor