an unintended villain in 10 Things I Hate About You: the nice guy trope

another rom coms revisited <3

We’ve got another episode of Rom Coms Revisited: exploring the good/bad/ugly of early 2000s rom coms. Today, another one of my personal faves!

I guess in this society being male and an asshole makes you worthy of our time.

- Kat Stratford

The Wikipedia synopsis: 10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Gil Junger and starring Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Larisa Oleynik. The screenplay, by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, is a modernization of William Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew, retold in a late-1990s American high school setting. The film follows new student Cameron (Gordon-Levitt) who is smitten with Bianca (Oleynik) and, in order to get around her father's strict rules on dating, attempts to get bad boy Patrick (Ledger) to date Bianca's antisocial sister, Kat (Stiles). The film is named after a poem Kat writes about her romance with Patrick.

I was trying to figure out exactly how many times I’ve seen this movie - I think it’s at least in the upper 50s range. *And* I actually remember the very first time I watched it. In the car (on whatever kind of TV was able to travel in a car in the early 2000s), on the way to the Lake of the Ozarks, with my best friend Emily, the summer after 7th grade. I’ve loved it ever since. I hope the costume designer won awards for their work - a true treasure trove of 90’s fashion.

Here’s the (very good) soundtrack to plan in the background while you’re reading:

There’s just so much to write about with this one. To me, it’s truly a masterpiece of the high school rom com genre. And, it was a directorial debut - do you find this as inspiring as I do? Screenwriting team Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith wrote it by mailing pages of the draft to each other from different cities. They also co-wrote several other bangers, including Legally Blonde, Ella Enchanted, The House Bunny, and She’s the Man.

First: 10 Things I Hate About You is loosely related to Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Many of the names in the movie are in homage to the original: Padua, Verona, Bianca, Katherina. Ahem: A shrew is an “unpleasant, ill-tempered woman characterized by scolding, nagging, and aggression.” Relatable! In this case, our shrew is feminist icon Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles), who likes “Thai food, feminist prose, and angry girl music of the indie rock persuasion”. Same.

High school students Kat and her sister Bianca live in Seattle in a very very beautiful house:

the house

Unfortunately, their controlling, patriarchal father (disguised in the film as somewhat goofily innocuous) also lives there. He has two house rules: “Number one, no dating til you graduate. Number two, no dating til you graduate. That’s it.”

Despite being a practicing OB/GYN, this dude is very very afraid of sex and/or unintended pregnancy. Instead of helping his daughters understand their repro options - which he is uniquely qualified to do - he bloviates on about the horrors of normal teen sexuality. He makes one of them wear a fake belly to simulate pregnancy before going to a study group.

like...

Of course, this is really about losing control of his daughters and their decisions. Kat directly confronts him, saying, “Stop making my decisions for me.” He responds with, “I’m your father, that is my right.” Excuse me?

Eventually, the rule is amended to “Bianca can date. When she (Kat) does.” This opens up the door of possibility for Bianca, but puts Kat in the really shitty position of gatekeeper. The sister dynamic stood out to me this rewatch. Their mother left the family 3 years prior, fracturing the family and sending each member off to their own little islands. It’s clear the sisters want to love each other, but their relationship is almost set up to fail because of their parents’ choices.

Anyway, with Bianca potentially available Cameron and his friend Michael devise a plan. Here’s the plan: Michael convinces rich/popular dude Joey to pay mysterious/loner Patrick to take out an unaware Kat. He says the purpose of this is to elevate his social status (“cool by association”), but the real reason is that nerdy/pining Cameron desperately wants to date Bianca, who can only date people after Kat decides to. It’s so messy!

Bianca, when asked to choose a headshot: “The white one. It seems more…pensive?” Joey: “Damn, I was going for thoughtful”.