William Shakespeare could never have imagined that some of his most famous works would be adapted into nearly unrecognizable films -- yet his plays inspired some of our greatest teen romance movies. There's 1996's Romeo and Juliet, O (based on Othello), She's The Man (Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) and my personal favorite, 10 Things I Hate About You, the 1999 rom-com that introduced Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles to the world, and is based on The Taming of the Shrew.
10 Things I Hate About You dropped on Netflix on Sept. 28 and in just a few short days it's become one of the most-watched movies of the week, currently hovering at No. 5 on Netflix's Top 10 films list, and rightfully so. In addition to Stiles and Ledger (in his American film debut), the film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik and Gabrielle Union (who would go on to star in yet another Shakespeare adaptation, Deliver Us From Eva).
Touchstone Pictures
In the film, Stiles' character, Kat Stratford, is a high school senior with no desire to date any of the boys in her school, while her more social younger sister Bianca (Oleynik) is boy crazy. Their strict obstetrician father (a hilariously dry Larry Miller, who gets all the film's best lines) will only allow Bianca to date if and when Kat decides to date, so as to avoid any unwanted teen pregnancies. ("I've got news for you, kissing isn't what keeps me up to my elbows in placenta all day," he tells Bianca.)
When new kid Cameron (Gordon-Levitt) and his pal Michael (Krumholtz) learn about the Stratford's dating rules, they hatch a plan for a rebellious loner named Patrick Verona (Ledger) to convince Kat to go out with him so that Bianca is free to date Cameron. Plotty and complicated? Only on paper, but that's Shakespeare, baby! He's the originator of the concept of "hijinks ensue."
Kat, who drives a beat-up Dodge Dart, reads Sylvia Plath and listens to British post-punk, is aloof and cool (like, so cool), but eventually she does actually fall for Patrick, who is kinder and less vicious than his reputation suggests. Even though Bianca and the romantic triangle that forms between her, Cameron and the pretty boy Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan) is essential to the story, it's Stiles and Ledger's chemistry and their character specifics that make the movie the cult classic that it is.
Ledger singing "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" in the football stadium, Stiles breaking down in real tears as she reads Patrick the titular poem she wrote for him, Allison Janney's erotica-obsessed guidance counselor, the Letters to Cleo cameo -- they're all iconic. 1995's Clueless, based on Jane Austen's Emma, became part of the zeitgeist and a genuine modern classic, while 10 Things never quite reached the same pop-cultural prestige, despite being its contemporary. (Ironically, does that make it the Christopher Marlowe of teen comedies?) Maybe it's because the movie wasn't quite as quotable, but on re-watch, there are a dozen laugh-out-loud jokes, Kat's feminism feels ahead of its time and Ledger's magnetic charm is immediately recognizable. The film still holds up with only a few dated moments, making it a perfect weekend rewatch.