Parents' Guide to

The Taming of the Shrewd

By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Romance blooms amid a scam; sex, language.

Movie NR 2022 112 minutes
The Taming of the Shrewd

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

  • The Taming of the Shrewd Scene # 1
  • The Taming of the Shrewd Scene # 1
  • The Taming of the Shrewd Scene # 3

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What's the Story?

THE TAMING OF THE SHREWD features Agata (Dorota Landowska), the hard-bitten chairperson of a Polish furniture company that's about to go under. If she can purchase a country tract of land that has a hidden supply of sought-after bogwood (prized wood preserved in peat bogs), she'll be able to rescue her firm. But scamming the landowners will be necessary. So when her irresponsible brother Patryk (Mikolaj Roznerski), her silent partner, comes to borrow a million for some forgotten debt, she agrees to lend it in exchange for a little errand. She needs him to seduce the stubborn Kaska (Magdalena Lamparska), a co-owner, and persuade her to sell. Having just left her cheating husband, Kaska isn't interested. She's returning to her country roots, hoping to settle on her family's land to keep bees. Kaska resists Patryk's questionable charms, and comic situations ensue.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

This Polish romcom doesn't work. In The Taming of the Shrewd, just who "the shrewd" is is unclear, since there doesn't seem to be anyone with a normal-sized human brain involved, never mind one with special reasoning skills the word "shrewd" suggests. That may be why the movie refers to itself in the opening subtitles using the far more Shakespearean, The Taming of the Shrew, no "D."

That confusion aside, what follows is a banal, humorless, overlong attempt at romantic comedy that fails on almost every level, from depictions of rural citizens as moronic and easily goaded into comic violence all the way to suggesting that a reserve of bogwood can save a company.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the representations of families here. What are we expected to think of a sister who has no qualms about putting her brother in danger?

  • Kaska is mean to Patryk, yet he smiles at her criticisms and continues to pursue her. Do you think this seems realistic? Why, or why not?

  • Landowners are portrayed as idiots. Does that portrayal add anything to the movie, or does it seem to reflect big-city assumptions about people who live in rural areas?

Movie Details

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