Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Larisa Oleynik in "10 Things I Hate About You."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, we give this film a: Stars: Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles and Joseph-Gordon Levitt Director: Gil Junger Rated: PG-13, with profanity, sexual situations and suggestive material Length: 97 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Marshall Fine
Gannett News Service

(March 31, 1999) -- It would be nice to report that 10 Things I Hate About You joins Clueless as a smart, savvy reworking of classic literature into a piece of modern entertainment that will edify even as it entertains.

But it would be wrong.

In truth, 10 Things I Hate About You is less a reworking of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew than a dumbed-down version minus Shakespeare's most telling jokes about the battle of the sexes. While writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith have kept the premise of the original play, they've ignored its essence and created a bland, occasionally pretentious teen comedy.

Set in Seattle, 10 Things centers on Cameron (Joseph-Gordon Levitt), a newcomer to Padua High School who falls for the most popular sophomore Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik). But as his new pal, Michael (David Krumholtz), points out, Cameron faces two major obstacles: He's out of Bianca's league socially and even if he did have suitable status, he couldn't go out with her because her father forbids her to date.

But dad (Larry Miller) wants to appear fair, so he alters his rule, pinning Bianca's social life on that of her older sister, Kat (Julia Stiles). Given that Kat is overtly anti-social (a guidance counselor tells her that the words most commonly used to describe her disposition were heinous bitch), it's not a particularly daring move.

Except that Cameron and Michael hit on a plan, utilizing high school rich-kid Joey (Andrew Keegan), who also wants to date Bianca. Michael convinces Joey to pay someone to date Kat, so Bianca can go out (at which point, theoretically, Cameron will wiggle in ahead of Joey). Joey, not too quick on the uptake, goes for the notion and hires high-school bad boy Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to woo Kat.

That takes some doing. Kat is both smart and smart-mouthed, a young woman wholly unconcerned with the opinion of others. She has no interest in binding herself emotionally to a boy at least until Patrick proves that he may, in fact, be worth a second look.

The joke in Shakespeare, of course, is that, by treating the woman with the same brutal disregard she offers to most men, the character breaks her spirit and wins her affection. The second punch line is that, even as Kat is tamed, Bianca proves to be the more evil-tempered of the sisters.

But the writers and director Gil Junger opt for a less-obvious form of taming (a word that doesn't strike a receptive note these days among the tamees). So they give Kat emotional secrets that only Patrick is deep enough to intuit. And the plot hinges on Kat's discovery that Patrick was being paid to date her, even as his feelings for her have become genuine. That's such a standard twist that you hope desperately they'll try something else; sadly, they don't.

As a result, 10 Things I Hate About You winds up as a wholly predictable teen romance comedy, one in which the laughs are few and far between. The writers make these kids exceptionally articulate without being actually witty. When humor does pop up, it's often of the vulgar kind.

The young cast is solid and likable, with Krumholtz (who has a Woody Allen-like delivery) drawing most of the laughs. But you keep getting glimmers of what might have been, had creators been willing to swing a little looser with the Bard, instead of trying to tailor 10 Things I Hate About You to a post-literate audience.