THN’s Guilty Pleasures: 10 Ten Things I Hate About You

A quick glance at my DVD collection and most people will spot it in an instant. Amongst all the highbrow dramas, gritty crime thrillers and blockbuster classics, 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU stands out like an albino on the beach. For years I’ve been denying all knowledge of how it found its way onto my DVD shelf, but I turn 27 next week, and it’s probably time to stop pretending it belongs to my sister, and start admitting it is indeed my guilty pleasure.

Peel away the film’s seemingly generic high school feel, and underneath the setup it’s delicious, not least because it’s lifted from the pages of William Shakespeare’s classic comedy play, ‘The Taming of the Shrew’.  In the film version, an over protective father will only let his younger daughter begin dating when his older daughter does, leading a besotted schoolboy to scheme his way into the young beauty’s life. Whilst borrowing the outline of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU clearly surpasses Shakespeare’s efforts; the Bard will be kicking himself for not thinking of a ‘flash your boobs to get your boyfriend out of detention’ gag.

Look at the cast! Christopher Nolan clearly did. This light-hearted high-school rom-com paired Joseph Gorden-Levitt and Heath Ledger a decade or so before either of them were anywhere near fashionable enough to appear in the world’s favourite comic book franchise. There’s also a great turn by Julia Stiles, who delivers plenty of laughs as the bad-ass, older sister of Larisa Oleynik’s goody two-shoes, date hungry boy-magnet.

It’s hard to feel guilty when I’m laughing this much. OK, so the humour’s not sophisticated or particularly original, but who’s bothered about that when you have a sarcastic bitch high on girl power, an underwear model who loves himself more than the girl he’s chasing, and a head mistress who’s more concerned with writing her version of ’50 Shades of Grey’ than disciplining kids?

As with all teenage romantic comedies, the humour is pointless if it’s not coupled with a ridiculous love story where all involved make numerous naive decisions before overcoming a series of very surmountable obstacles to finally live happily ever after. Luckily there are TWO such romances running alongside each other here. And I can’t help but get swept up in them both.

One of the most memorable scenes sees Patrick (Ledger) gain Katarina’s (Stiles) attentions with an excruciating but humorous public performance of ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’. If the film doesn’t take this scene quite seriously enough to melt your heart, then look me in the eye and tell me you don’t feel something when Katarina tearily recites her shit poem at the end.

10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU might not possess the potent wit of MEAN GIRLS, the sharp observation of CLUELESS, or the freshness of FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, but it unashamedly embraces the same sense of fun that has attained these three films cult status. I’m not going to argue that 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU deserves a cult following or is better than any of these films (because it’s not), but there really is something to be said about the extra pleasure you feel when enjoying a film you know you shouldn’t.

So there it is. I’ve shared my guiltiest pleasure with you, and next time somebody peruses my DVD collection and asks how I came about a copy of 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, I’ll tell them I bought it. From a shop. With my own money. Then I’ll tell them they can mock me all they want, because I’ve come to terms with it, and having done so I realise I no longer feel guilty- not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.

For all of THN’s Guilty Pleasures click here