DailyView: Day 267, Movie 373

I was watching 10 Things I Hate About You on Disney + and I was about half way into it when I made a realization… this movie was basically William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. I have never actually read the play, but I have seen other adaptations over the years (especially Moonlighting’s Atomic Shakespeare) and I recognized the story.

I was unsure about this movie. I liked the beginning of it, but it felt like it was going to end in ways that I really did not. However, I think the film nailed the ending without damaging the female characters, which was something that I was worried about. Julia Stiles’s Kat Stratford and Larisa Oleynik’s Bianca Stratford came out looking strong and anything but weaklings.

Bianca cannot go out with anyone until her older sister Kat does. This is the rule placed on them by their overprotective father Walter (Larry Miller). New student Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has fallen for Bianca, and he sets a plan in motion to have rebel Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to try and date Kat so Bianca could be free to date whom she wanted.

Of course, there are a lot of issues that mess the plan up, but when Patrick and Kat start to hit it off, you start to root for them as a couple.

There are funny moments, but the best aspects of 10 Things I Hate About You is the relationships between the characters. Are there ridiculous things that happen? Of course. But I have to say that I think that this is one of my favorite rom-coms around. Heath Ledger is great and charming. He and Julia Stiles had chemistry for miles. Joseph Gordon-Levitt may have gotten away with his role in the action without any real consequence. Larisa Oleynik showed so much more depth than it looked as if she was going to have.

I found this fun and was happy I got a chance to add it to the DailyView.