10 Things I Hate, but not about this movie

One of the best things about romantic comedies in my opinion is that the male lead usually happens to be a heartthrob. Someone to gawk at and imagine as your next boyfriend all the while realizing that will never happen. Ending in disappointment yes but remembering how much you were entertained by the movie makes it all worth while.

The film 10 Things I Hate About You stars Heath Ledger as the main lead and follows his endeavors and attempts at winning the affection of the female lead Julia Stiles. The film is based off of the story of The Taming of the Shrew written by Shakespeare so the audience already knows it will be a dramatic love story. The film depicts a basic high school with some of the basic high school clique  system but also some unconventional ones as well. Popular attractive people, cowboys, coffee snobs etc. Two sisters at the school fit into different groups of the high school life, one is younger but in the pretty/popular group, while another is incredibly smart but very shrewd (ha! get it?). The story follows two boys who are trying to win over the younger sister, the younger sister is not allowed to date until the Julia Stiles character dates, which everyone knows will never happen because she does not date.

While the movie is greatly entertaining and has its sweet parts, the next part of the summary is actually what is disappointing, how individuals are actually paid to take the older sister on a date and win over her affection. First of all, it is totally ok not to date and be single, being single is one of the best times for a person to figure out who they truly are. This film unfortunately shows a different side, the side of I need someone to be totally happy. This notion is false, completely false and is such a disappointment to see in a generally good movie.

The upside to the lessons taught in 10 Things I Hate About You is that not everything is black and white. There are gray areas in life, somethings are hard to distinguish such as feelings and other emotions. While it is hard to understand the gray area, the parts of life that are black and white should be noted. If a person truly loves someone, act on that feeling, sing them a song, write them a poem, or simply tell that person how you feel. Heath Ledger's character probably had one of the best apologies I have ever seen from a man.

This film actually does contain good lessons such as loving yourself and following your heart which outweighs some of the bad lessons. Honestly this is the movie that I started to base love on, at least form a high school girls perspective. With each romantic comedy released as well as my experiences those perspectives constantly shift.