“10 Things I Hate About You” is Gil Junger’s take on the teen romance genre and is a spinoff of William Shakespeare’s  comedy play “Taming of the Shrew ” and it excels at being mediocre in every way.

 It is a romance story where the love struck protagonist Cameron (Joseph Gorden-Livett) quests after the ever elusive popular pretty girl at school Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) but runs into a problem, her strict and anti relationship father (Larry Miller) won’t let her date until her no emotion hated sister Kat (Julia Stiles) dates. Cameron and his ever supportive wingman Michael (David Krumholtz) hatch a plan to sneak under the Stratford fathers nose by getting a date for Bianca’s older sister Kat. The ideal man for the job is the tough bad boy at school Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) who accepts the job through a frontman Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan) the school bully and jock who is also after Bianca. 

The line delivery from actors is really good with character constituency throughout the story not completely and unrealistically changing personalities because of their story arc. This can really be shown with Kat’s character who changes and learns to love but still makes snarky comments and is quick to attitude at the end of the movie which is a part of her character. However the repetitive soundtrack of heartbroken love songs all blend together and make the movie drag with the occasional good joke or interesting scene tying everything together. The premise and idea of the plot is interesting but becomes unfun to watch Cameron’s failed romantic advances on Bianca as her shallow character and little development until the final third makes her relationship with Cameron barely real or believable as she only uses him to get what she wants for the majority of the movie. 

However the story spends much of its time centered around Patrick and Kat which does develop a balanced character shift for both of the characters which builds a somewhat believable romantic relationship. 

That is until they have to go through a stereotypical relationship  “you lied to me” story arc which un does much of the good relationship building between the couple and then resolves itself within fifteen minutes. The comedy hits really well when timed correctly with the tone and flow of the scene but when it doesn’t it makes other flaws of the movie notably more visible trying to distract the viewers from the middle act that seemingly drags on. The ending however does resolve the conflicts of the movie nicely and finishes character arcs/relationship arcs in ways which make those relationships seem better but it is easier to see through with every rewatch.

 Should you watch this movie now, no you probably have more important things to do, should you completely skip it, no because despite the issues it has it is still a fun addition to the genre and fans of the genre should enjoy this movie. My suggestion would be to leave it for a slow boring afternoon with time to kill because that’s all the movie really comes up to.