One of the trends during the 1990s was movie studios making films based on the classics, especially Shakespeare (possibly because they'd run out of reliable new material). Bringing films like Clueless, Emma, Romeo + Juliet and others to a new generation of teens, who may or may not be familiar with the source material. And just to broaden the appeal, most were heavily retro-80s in style - perhaps an attempt to keep the John Hughes teen-machine running after that bankable director's retirement from filmmaking.
One of the most memorable of this crop of hybrid1980s-meets-pre-20th Century Literature was 10 Things I Hate About You, an adaptation of The Bard's The Taming of the Shrew, starring two hot up-and-coming actors, Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger.
It's now 15 years later, Stiles has settled into a comfortable if less stellar than anticipated career as a working actress, Ledger rocketed to stardom and then self-destructed a half dozen years ago, and the 80s are now a solid quarter century behind us. So how does the film hold up? Pretty good actually. Surprising for a fluffy romantic comedy aimed squarely at a teen audience. Thank the material, the filmmakers, the talent, whatever, but what should have been a disposable, trendy, adolescent confection still manages to charm, despite the obvious contrived nature of getting a story based on medieval marriage customs to work in a modern context.
Stiles and Ledger are both playing the stand-offish cool kid here - which is a nice twist from the one heart-on-their-sleeve, one hard-to-get matchmaking these films usually have. The film plays it's humor cards in a light-breezy way, never trying to beat you over the head with the jokes, and the music, mostly by third wave ska and pop bands covering 70s and 80s songs (another 90s trend), is infectiously fun.
10 Things I Hate About You may not be the high art people think of when they think of Shakespeare, but it is greatly entertaining, and remember that really was old Bill's intentions after all.
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