Dir: Gil Junger
PG, 97mins
Screening now not at Chauvel

If you haven't heard already, this teen flick is an update of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. For those of you unfamiliar with the story (ie those of you as bored by straight adaptations of the Bard's work as I am) here it is... The somewhat plain Cameron (Tommy from Third Rock from the Sun) arrives at Padua High and immediately falls in love with the beautiful but unobtainable Katarina (Tommy's girlfriend in Third Rock from the Sun) who lives under the iron rule of her paranoid father. Katarina is not allowed to date until her nasty, boyhating sister Bianca dates so Cameron's scheming friend Michael convinces school rich kid and parttime model Joey to bankroll their plan to have the school wild boy Patrick (Heath Ledger) date Bianca, thus freeing Katarina to date.

The film is totally predictable which I liked, because they didn't pretend that the beautiful girl would fall for the beautiful boy and only after much drama realise that the plain boy is the one she wants. That never looks like happening in this film which was a relief, plus you can always tell that the bad boy and the bad girl will end up together because none of them are really bad, just misunderstood. And you always know that the plan will be exposed and there will be a fight and a reconciliation and a prom. There is always a prom. Does nothing happen at high school except around prom time? The film's biggest asset is it humour, which has a cynical, almost nasty, nineties edge. The story is very tired (well it is hundreds of years old) but the jokes flow steadily, but it is not a perfect film and there are dull moments of conflict and bonding, but what do you expect since it is a romance. The funniest characters are the adults - the guidance counsellor who is more concerned with writing her sex novels than helping the students, the English teacher who seems to hate everyone in his class, and the sisters' father who just wants to protect his daughters from pregnancy. I even learnt some things in this film, like if a girl has black underwear, she wants sex.

The film is a classic eighties high school romance in the nineties (so there is no John Cusack or Molly Ringwald), melding together Valley Girl (bad boy after rich girl), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (general scenario and characters), Rock'n'Roll High School (the schemer), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (defying authority), any John Cusack film (the boy's attempts to impress the girl) and any of John Hughes' films (geeky boy after beautiful girl). You will know the characters, you will know who ends up with who, you know how they interact, but you will also have fun getting to the conclusion, and it has a 'cool' soundtrack which includes Spiderbait. Watch the end credits for some simulated outtakes. The people I went with didn't enjoy this film as much as I did, even thought they laughed as much as I did. At the end they mumbled something about predictability and having seen it all before, but how many films do you see that really surprise you with the ending? This film is not about 'originality', how could any version of Shakespeare be original? The film is full of great lines and I shall leave you with perhaps the most tasteless: "Why is everyone so hot for this girl? Does she have beer flavoured nipples?"

sebastian niemand
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