The Taming of the Shrewd (Poskromienie złośnicy) is a Polish rom-com movie directed by Anna Wieczur-Bluszcz and stars Magdalena Lamparska, Mikołaj Roznerski, and Piotr Cyrwus, alongside other cast members. The movie has a runtime of 112 minutes.
Netflix describes the movie as:
When a heartbroken scientist moves back home to start over, her scheming brother hires a handsome stranger to convince her to sell their land.
– The Taming of the Shrewd review does not contain spoilers –
The Taming of the Shrewd knows what it is. Thus, from the first moment, it doesn’t try to be anything but ordinary. The film is a rom-com with average comedy that doesn’t really make you laugh and sometimes makes your head ache because of how hard you have to roll your eyes. Even its opening scene, where our scientist protagonist, Kaska, goes all crazy about her cheating husband, is nothing but… annoyingly ordinary.
The entire scene should’ve been the precursor for the chaos that you witness after, but we’re young, dumb and naïve at that point. Either way, the characters and their situations are as tame as they can be, so why they’d need more taming is beyond me. Of course, we don’t watch romantic movies to be overly critical, right? We watch them to have fun and relax. You know, smile.
Unfortunately, watching the constant and loud bickering, especially between Kaska’s brother and the owner of the bar, is exhausting. It doesn’t help that Kaska and Patryk are absolutely loud, boring and insufferable as well. And this is just within the first few minutes of the movie. Afterwards, the two old men try to find her a man – yes, there is a “hiring a fake boyfriend” moment as well.
So, what’s interesting about the movie? Other than the spectacular location and the good-looking protagonists, nothing much. It’s an annoying watch, one that takes too long to get to the point that we already knew. Plus, everyone just tries to bully Kaska and push her around. I mean, this is her hometown as well, but the people get sold with some money against one of their own. It’s so weird. Weirder still is the fact that all of this is supposed to be humorous.
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The repetitive nature of the movie is what is, ultimately, its downfall. That, and the movie’s extremely annoying and loud characters. For some reason, there’s a sexual predator doctor as well, I don’t know the point. It’s not funny, just very uncomfortable to watch her try to take advantage of Patryk. The Taming of the Shrewd is a lot of things, definitely, but not many of them are positive or even remotely romantic since it’s all based on lies.
Of course, again, that’s not a new thing in movies. However, there are ways to showcase the mundane to provide something fresh. That’s not the case here. It’s the same thing wrapped in the same stale bow. Fortunately, or unfortunately, you’re not bored because you’re too busy cringing at the awkwardness and uncomfortableness. At least Magdalena Lamparska and Mikołaj Roznerski are believable in their roles, however annoying they might be.
Summing up: The Taming of the Shrewd
The Taming of the Shrewd is another stale and uncomfortable rom-com that does the absolute minimum with its storyline. It’s too loud and annoying to be taken seriously or to find it romantic in any sense of the term. It feels weirdly manipulative and I don’t know how I feel about my romantic interest lying to my face throughout our relationship.
The Taming of the Shrewd is streaming on Netflix.
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