10 Things I Hate About You (1999) - a Movie Review

10 Things I Hate About You is a romantic comedy starring Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. The movie is a retelling of the classic Shakespeare play "The Taming of the Shrew," set at a modern day high school. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Cameron, a new student at Padua High who is instantly smitten with Bianca, played by Larisa Oleynik. Bianca is not allowed to date unless her older sister Kat, played by Julia Stiles, starts dating. Unfortunately, Kat is very unpopular and un-dateable so Cameron and his best friend Michael concoct a scheme to get popular but stupid Joey Donner to pay bad boy Patrick Verona to date Kat. Patrick Verona is played by Heath Ledger in one of his first movie roles. Of course nothing ever goes as planned but love conquers all and the good guys get the girls at the end.

This movie is an oldie but a favorite of mine. My boyfriend watched it for the first time last night with me and he was very impressed, which is a huge compliment because he normally doesn't like teen movies. It was probably my 20^th time watching it but the first time since Heath Ledger's untimely death in January. It was a bit sad in some parts because the movie reminded me of what a great actor Heath was and I am still saddened by his passing.

The movie is full of great actors besides Heath Ledger. Julia Stiles was perfect in her bitchiness and unwillingness to conform to the popular crowd. Larisa Oleynik was excellent as the snobbish princess who realizes that sometimes popular people really are just jerks. My personal favorite character was Michael played by David Krumholtz. He played a loveable nerd quite well.

The movie is also neat to watch if you want to see how actors change in over eight years. Julia Stiles and Larisa Oleynik pretty much look the same after eight years but David Krumholtz and Joseph Gordon-Levitt look quite a bit more mature and handsome now a days. David Krumholtz is quite attractive in the TV show Numbers. Joseph just acts in movies but he sticks to more mature roles, no more teen movies.

10 Things I Hate About You is also a reminder on how much teen movies have changed over the years and not necessarily for the better. 10 Things I Hate About You is a nice family movie; no cussing, no sex scenes, and no unnecessary violence. Julia Stile's character can't even say the word "sex." She just gets her point across to her sister with some looks. Oh how I miss those days of nice teen movies without sex and drugs. 10 Things I Hate About You is still one of my favorite movies, one that can be watched over and over again without getting boring. I rate the movie 5 out of 5 stars.