Movie Review # 440: 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Ladies & gentlemen, tonight, we review a film that was made by Touchstone Pictures, a subsidiary company of Disney, and that I watched on Disney+ recently. Watching it again recently, I remember seeing most, if not the whole movie. Oh, and I do have another story to mention. When I was in the Christian Formation class during my sophomore year of attending Jim Elliott Christian School, and I planned on doing my devotional on my struggle with jealousy, 10 Things I Hate About You was a film that my family, and I suggested that I show a clip, or two from relating to the subject. However, for those of you who have been friends with me on Facebook, and me mentioning it a couple times, you may recall me mentioning that I ended up showing a couple clips from the Disney version of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame instead. Well, thankfully, even though I’m still glad to have shown Hunchback instead, I can now see the areas where this film shows struggles of jealousy. Either way, here is my review for 10 Things I Hate About You!

Plot: Set in Seattle, Washington, at Padua High School, sophomore student Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik) desires to date popular male student Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan). However, Bianca is forbidden to do so until her older sister Kat (Julia Stiles) dates first. Seeing as Kat is skeptical of the idea, will she warm up to the idea of dating new student Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger), finally allowing Bianca to date?

Okay, like other genres of films, teen comedies have had their fair share of cliches as well. I mean what one teen making bets with others in regards to dating, main make, and female characters having big fights that could be game changers for each of them, and, well, you likely get the idea. However, even if some of those cliches might appear in a film like 10 Things I Hate About You, the film does still stand out surprisingly well, despite having some flaws. First of all, most of the characters aren’t really all that bland at all. In fact, even if not until later in the film, you still get to have an understanding of where some of them are coming from in regards to certain choices that they make, certain rules that parents enforce, and things like that. As a result, a good majority of the characters are surprisingly very likable, and memorable. Plus, main characters Kat, Bianca, Patrick, and Cameron especially grow as characters over the course of this film. Even though the theme of this movie may not necessarily be good Vs. evil, the movie could probably feel that way at points. Additionally, the movie does a good job of showing how either positive, or negative experiences could change how people view certain things in life. The movie also is great at portraying what life in high school is like, especially in public school. I mean with there being different cliques, the jockeys, the “hot rod” popular kids, you name it. Oh, and what’s more is that it is surprising how well the people can act in this film. Granted, maybe Joseph Gordon Levitt could have done a little better with his acting as the nicer kid Cameron James. But you know what? He seemed fairly new to the acting in lo Irs, despite being in Hollywood for maybe a few years, or more. Anyway, the film also shows how kids can get when they take things too far with how they’re feeling about situations. As I mentioned before, in the introductory paragraph, this movie does cover some heavy subjects like jealousy, smoking, and possibly even the whole deal about who to trust, or to not trust in life. Oh, and if male teenagers that are in middle, or even high school, are interested in learning how to win a girl over, or vice versa, this movie may provide some helpful tips in regards to that. Finally, 10 Things I Hate About You provides some very valuable lessons. One of these includes how doing what’s right may not be the popular thing, as a banner in the film put it, and doing the popular thing is not always right. Oh, and there’s the whole lesson about how NOT all experiences are good ones. Honestly, many times in our lives, we may find ourselves regretting that we didn’t get the most girlfriends, or boyfriends, or didn’t get to go to too many popular parties, or whatever else. Whatever it may be, I won’t say what brings this subject up, but let me just say that for those of us out there who didn’t get to participate in so many “fun” experiences, and got upset as a result, maybe we should be grateful that we didn’t end up hurting ourselves because, as one character in this film put it, “Not all experiences are good ones.”

If there were any negatives to say about this film, it would be a couple things. First of all, there were some character arcs that may have felt a little forced, and could have been handled a little better. Yes, they were good arcs too. It’s just that maybe there could have been a little more buildup in that area, you know? The other thing is that there were certain conflict resolutions that were a little cornet, and maybe could have been solved a little better. Again, I won’t go into detail on that, but just see this film, and you’ll probably know what I mean.

And that’s my review for 10 Things I Hate About You. While not quite an A+ film, there are plenty of elements that make this film very strong. It has likable characters, a good soundtrack, and some very good lessons. Even if you’re an adult, and out of high school, or even college, this film is definitely one worth seeing. It is most definitely one of those films that is likely to stand the test of time hears from now.

Final Grade: A-