Tribute

Ever since Heath Ledger died, I just cannot get enough of the movie “10 Things I Hate About You”. Now, I know that this was not exactly his cinematic masterpiece, nor what he’d want to be remembered for, but I just find myself incapable of passing up an opportunity to watch – for the zillionth time – this bubble-gum teen version of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. It was his breakout role, but he specifically went a different route afterward so as not to be pegged as a pretty-boy teen idol, and his subsequent work proved he wasn’t a flash in the pan. So, I understand why he’d probably cringe to hear me say that I find myself absolutely riveted to his face every time he comes onscreen. I think the appeal for me is that this movie is a snapshot of him in which, to borrow a line from Steel Magnolias, “…he will always be young, he will always be beautiful…”. I genuinely believe that this was a guy who was truly talented, had a brilliant career ahead of him, and just plain screwed up, innocently if fatally. I don’t think he was a drug addict, I don’t think he was suicidal; I think he was so engrossed in his work that he found himself unable to sleep and just made a really poor choice in trying to rectify the situation. Maybe that’s naïve, but I choose to believe it nonetheless. And every time I watch this movie again, just to get a fix, I find myself wondering if his family does the same thing.