This year the play's the thing with a screen adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream and a trio of teen movies based on Taming of the Shrew , Hamlet and Othello . in the 60s West Side Story and Franco Zefferilli discovered the youth appeal of Romeo and Juliet and in 1996 Baz Luhrmann cast teen hearthrob Leonardo DiCaprio in his punky version of the play. In the just released 1 0 Things I Hate About You , writers Karen McCullah and Kristen Smith take Shakespeares Taming of the Shrew a nd transfer it to a contemporary setting. Now we have the castle-like setting of padua high school where the pretty and popular Bianca grows increasingly frustrated with the restrictions on her social life.
Bianca
: "Can we focus on me, Im the only girl not dating..."
Dad
: "Old rule out, new rule, Bianca can date when she does. I can sleep the deep slumber of a father who knows his daughters aren't being impregnated."
Bianca's inability to date prompts her lovesick suitors to try and find a match for her sister, the caustic Kat.
Bianca
: "Would any of you be interested in dating kat?"
Boy
: "Maybe if we were the last people on earth and there were no goats. Are there any goats?"
In the past, Hollywood has used famous off screen couples like Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, and later Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor to add onscreen fire to the Bard's lively battle of the sexes. In 10 Things I Hate About You , the roles are played by newcomers Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger who play well off of each other as they reluctantly fall in love.
Patrick: "
So what
'
s your excuse for acting the way we do?"
Kat
: "I don't like to do what other people expect."
Patrick
: "Then you screwed up, you never disapointed me."
As written by McCullah and Smith, this battle of the sexes seems to borrow more from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing than Taming of the Shrew beause the combatants are placed on more equal footing and enjoy the challenge of their verbal encounters. Gone is the underlying sexism that can make Taming of the Shrew troublesome for contemporary audiences. Ledger and Stiles score with their flashy roles but the standout of the young cast is Larisa Oleynik as Bianca. She gives subtle shadings to what could have been simply an airhead role.
Director Gil Junger, who comes from TV, relies too much on a calculated soundtrack to set the tone. He also makes the film too cute and sitcomy, leaving long pauses that beg for a laugh track. But he can't take all the edge out of the clever script by McCullah and Smith. The writers give us that rare thing -- a savvy teen comedy that has well developed characters, explores real issues and doesn't make a villain out of everyone over 30. Like Clueless from a few years back, 10 Things I Hate About You deals with peer pressure and champions those who defy conventions and insist on being different.
