Reimagined Shakespeare Marathon Movie 1: 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

There are certain movies that come out which encapsulate a time, a place, and the people that existed in said time and place.  The first movie in the Reimagined Shakespeare Marathon, 10 Things I Hate About You, may not have been that movie to define the late 90s generation but it was a good ride while it lasted.

10 Things About You is a teenage romantic comedy of sorts based off of the Shakespeare classic The Taming of the Shrew.  It starred Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt among others.  It’s tough to give a basic plot synopsis but I will try.  Guy 1 and guy 2 make a plan to make girl 1 go out with guy 1 by getting guy 3 to pay guy 4 to go out with girl 2 who is sister of girl 1 because girl 1 can only go on dates if girl 2 does because of their father’s rule.  That’s the plot right there in a run on sentence.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call this the movie the late 90s generation.  I would, however, consider it one of the better teenage based films to come from that period.  Not only does 10 Things I Hate About You have the solid foundation of William Shakespeare written source material, this movie was able to cast actors who could work the material in a way that raised it from the mass amounts of teenage angst movies that were released at that time.  Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles played off of each other in a way that keeps the viewer invested in their relationship.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt filled the role of the love struck high school student in a way that hooked the viewer in and kept him or her watching.  I would argue that the two actors that made the most of their roles in the movie were David Krumholtz as the friend who just wanted to be liked by anyone, and Larry Miller as the understandably protective father.  Each of them inserted some well-placed comedy into the movie, bringing their parts of the script to life in a way that I don’t think anyone else could have.  Don’t let the singling out of these performances make you believe that any of the other performances were bad.  Everyone in 10 Things I Hate About You was good.  The casting might have been the best part of the whole movie because without it, there wouldn’t have been the building blocks necessary to make it as enjoyable as it turned out to be.

I’d also like to point out two small things that made me appreciate the movie even more than just the pleasure of the acting and the story.  Both of these are rather basic things but I appreciate them as small little touches.  The first is that the main female characters have the last name Stratford.  It might seem a little on-the-nose but I appreciate the nod to Shakespeare.  It’s not too obvious and it’s not so subtle that it flies over everyone’s heads.  Using the name Stratford was that perfect middle ground.  The other small detail that added to 10 Things I Hate About You was that the teenagers, with the exception of the male model character, all had average cars.  In too many movies with teenagers, the teenagers have the “cool” cars.  In 10 Things I Hate About You, the main characters have vehicles that don’t seem like the best looking things in the world.  I appreciate that little detail that made the movie seem more relatable, as small of a detail as it was.

The soundtrack for 10 Things I Hate About You was a solid soundtrack that perfectly suited the time that it was made and set.  For the most part, every song was used well in terms of sound, mood, or plot.  The only problem I had was with the use of the song Shout.  I realize that it was most likely used to homage the great Animal House scene but something seemed off about it.  The cover of Shout that was used was okay.  It wasn’t my personal cup of tea, but it was okay.  The problem seemed to stem from where it was used in the movie.  This is a song used for emotional release.  You let your wild side get the best of you.  You let loose.  But it was used during the build up to the climax of the movie.  It seemed like the wrong time to use the song.  That’s just me though.  What do I know about using music in movies?  Moving past that, I liked the music during the remainder of the movie.  It both suited the story beats and the time in a way that some similar movies failed to do.

10 Things I Hate About You is a solid movie that kept me interested through its entire runtime.  I can’t say how good of a Shakespeare adaptation it was, nor do I care.  It was an entertaining movie and what I saw should be what I take from it.  Despite that one music flaw that irritated me much more than it should have, I really liked this movie.  From the acting, to the story, to the music, to the small details, all the way to the ending which I thought was rather emotional coming from a teenage romantic comedy, I liked this movie.  Most everything seemed to work in a way that many movies of this genre tend to miss. If this is a sign of what’s to come in the marathon, I am pleasantly awaiting the rest of the movies.

And that’s all I have to say about that.