Scene Analysis

This scene leaves the viewer upset because it is the scene were Kat confesses her feelings for Pat in a strange, but powerful, way. Kat is a smart girl who “doesn't attract many boys”, this may have to do with the fact she is somewhat doesn’t want a boyfriends. Kat is very kept to herself and has a lot to say about her sisters boy life. The father decided it a house rule should be that Bianca, Kat’s younger sister, cannot date until Kat has a boyfriend. Bianca and the boy she likes pull some strings so that Kat ends up with a boy. Eventually Kat meets the new boy Pat, the boy Bianca set up to date the sister, this causes conflit later. Kat and Pat hang out and he ends up forming real feelings for her. He wants to end the bet before Kat finds out and gets hurt. Eventually at the Prom, Kat finds out about Pat and is heartbroken. This leads us to the scene I will be writing about today. The Poem scene starts off with a reference to the Prom, Joey (Bianca's Ex-Boy), was punched by her current boy for being an ass. By showing that Joey’s face is still bruised gives the viewer a time frame of when this scene takes place. Probably the monday they return back to school after the prom weekend. The teacher ask who would like to go first and the camera flips to the class. There is slow movement camera shows an overview of the class, going back and forth while the students avoid eye contact. Kat is the only student who offers to say her poem out loud.The camera shows Pat in the room so we are aware that he will hear this love/hate poem. The director probably chose this because having other people saying a poem would be pointless, it could draw attention away from Kat and Pat in the scene. While Kat is standing in front of the class, she starts off by listing off the things she "hates" about Patrick Verona, but never mentions his name. While she continues the speech the camera slowly moves in. This is so the viewer can see the look on her face and see her emotion. When she gives the line "even worse when you make me cry", she begins to tear up and continues that tear up crying voice until the end. This shows that she really cares. Her last few lines tell the view that those little things she "hates" are the reason why she likes him so much. Which allows us to make sense of the scene. The camera really focuses on her facial expressions. When she is finished with the poem, the camera flips to Patrick, then back to Kat crying and making eye contact, back to Patrick and you hear her footsteps leaving the room .This is so the viewer can see Pat’s emotion too. By going back and forth it builds tension between Kat & Pat, and the viewer. When she storms out the room, you are left with this empty feeling, somewhat like Pat did.