In Collection
#403
Seen It:
Yes
USA / English
| Julia Stiles |
Kat Stratford |
| Heath Ledger |
Patrick Verona |
| Joseph Gordon-Levitt |
Cameron James |
| Larisa Oleynik |
Bianca Stratford |
| Larry Miller |
Walter Stratford |
| David Krumholtz |
Michael |
| Andrew Keegan |
Joey Donner |
| Susan May Pratt |
Mandella |
| Gabrielle Union |
Chastity |
| Daryl Mitchell |
Mr. Morgan |
| Director |
Gil Junger |
| Producer |
Jeffrey Chernov; Jody Hedien; Andrew Lazar |
| Writer |
Karen McCullah Lutz; Kirsten Smith |
It's, like, Shakespeare, man! This good-natured and likeable update of
The Taming of the Shrew takes the basics of Shakespeare's farce about a surly wench and the man who tries to win her and transfers it to modern-day Padua High School. Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) is a sullen, forbidding riot grrrl who has a blistering word for everyone; her sunny younger sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) is poised for high school stardom. The problem: overprotective and paranoid Papa Stratford (a dryly funny Larry Miller) won't let Bianca date until boy-hating Kat does, which is to say never. When Bianca's pining suitor Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) gets wind of this, he hires the mysterious, brooding Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to loosen Kat up. Of course, what starts out as a paying gig turns to true love as Patrick discovers that underneath her brittle exterior, Kat is a regular babe. The script, by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, is sitcom-funny with peppy one-liners and lots of smart teenspeak; however, its cleverness and imagination doesn't really extend beyond its characters' Renaissance names and occasional snippets of real Shakespearean dialogue. What makes the movie energetic and winning is the formula that helped make
She's All That such a big hit: two high-wattage stars who look great and can really act. Ledger is a hunk of promise with a quick grin and charming Aussie accent and Stiles mines Kat's bitterness and anger to depths usually unknown in teen films; her recitation of her English class sonnet (from which the film takes its title) is funny, heartbreaking and hopelessly romantic. The imperious Allison Janney (
Primary Colors) nearly steals the film as a no-nonsense guidance counsellor secretly writing a trashy romance novel.
--Mark Englehart
| Barcode |
7321918346725 |
| Region |
2 |
| Chapters |
22 |
| Release Date |
08/01/2001 |
| Packaging |
Keep Case |
| Screen Ratio |
1.85:1 |
| Subtitles |
Finnish |
| Audio Tracks |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 |
| Layers |
Single Side, Single Layer |
| Nr of Disks/Tapes |
1 |
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