“The Taming of the Shrewd” is a Polish romantic comedy-drama that deals with the story of two brothers who are desperate to grab the land of their sister to sell it to a firm. Heartbroken after learning about her boyfriend’s affair, Kaska decides to return home from Chicago. After returning home, she learned that her brothers were planning to sell her house and land without her consent. She disrupted the deal and announced that she would not sell anything. Both the brothers and the firm had their eyes set on her land, and they were ready to do everything in their capacity to make it happen.
‘The Taming Of The Shrewd’ Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?
In Zakopane, in a village called Podhale, the two cousins, Wacus and Jedrus, were always at loggerheads with each other. But when a firm offered a promising deal, they planned to sell their lands together. The only problem was that Jedrus’s sister had her share of the land as well. When she arrived from Chicago, she made it clear that she would not sell her land. The firm offered the brothers a week to make the deal work.
Meanwhile, the firm was sinking financially, and they were looking forward to the land deal to interest investors. The land had a hidden treasure; it had a bogwood deposit. The value of bogwood is greater than that of diamonds, and this interested the investor; he agreed to invest only if they had the land deal. Agata and Patryk Nawrot were the owners of the Nawrot firm. Agata looked after the business while her brother mostly got himself into difficult situations. Agata decided to use her brother’s situation in her favor. She sent her bodyguard to threaten Patryk for money. Patryk, who was careless in general, thought that he owed money to the man and called his sister for help. She agreed to pay him ten million in one week, but he had to work for her. Patryk was sent to Podhale to entice Kaska and win the land.
The brothers, who did not know the whole truth, also came up with a similar plan where they decided to use a handsome man to win over their sister. Patryk was interviewed as well, and he was easily the best choice for the brother. Patryk thought this would keep another competitor away, and he would also get the help of the brothers. While everyone planned according to their benefits, Kaska dreamt of building the Silicon Valley of honey. She was a scientist who was passionate about bees and wanted to technologically contribute to helping bees survive.
Major Spoilers Ahead
How Did Patryk Woo Kaska?
Patryk met Kaska when her suitcase slipped off her hands and hit his bike. Even though Patryk wanted to get Kaska’s attention, she was not in the mood to make another mistake. He tried to set up a camp in front of her house on a rainy night to get invited inside, but it was not that easy. Even though he was invited out of courtesy, his plan to romance her did not work at all. After her brothers started helping him, they made sure that Kaska would turn her attention toward him. When she looked for wood to repair her roof, the man selling it refused to sell it to her. When she approached an apiary to buy the constructed hives, he mentioned that they were already sold. Later, Patryk kept all the hives in front of her house as a way to appear as her savior. He helped her repair her roof. He then even built a fence for her. Wherever Kaska looked, she found Patryk there, trying numerous ways to impress her.
Her feelings started to change when she allowed Patryk to stay at her cottage. She came home to a perfect house where the roof did not leak, the plumbing was perfect, and there were candles all around to liven up the atmosphere. She wanted to knock and share a drink with him, but decided against it. When she went for a bath, Patryk looked at her through the door crack. While staying with Kaska, he learned how passionate she was about saving the bees and how her technology could bring a revolution. Kaska had ordered a queen bee from Belgium that was sent two days ago, but she was informed later. Patryk rode his bike to help her reach the post office, which was an hour’s distance away. The timing was crucial to saving the bee, and without Patryk’s help, it would have been impossible. Even though the post office had just closed then, he managed to open it again and bring the bee to Kaska. She wanted to set up her digital apiary. The sensor would record the humidity, temperature, the bees’ condition, sound, and swarm mobility. The data would then be sent to the cloud to analyze. It would be connected to the whole neighborhood, and she would run the control center. That was her big plan.
After Patryk helped her save her bee and, therefore, her dream, she felt that he truly valued her. Patryk, too, had developed a certain feeling for her, but just when he wanted to confess the truth, she stopped him, and they shared a moment of intimacy. The next day, Patryk left the cottage, to tell the truth to her brothers. In the meantime, Kaska woke up, and she saw Patryk’s phone ringing. It was his sister, Agata. She also spotted his ATM card, which had his name written on it. When she saw the surname Nawrot, she realized that it was all an elaborate game.
‘The Taming Of The Shrewd’ Ending Explained: Did Kaska Build Her Digital Beehive?
The brothers were extremely angry when they heard the truth from Patryk. They felt cheated. Kaska also confronted him and remarked that she would sell the land after all, since that is what everybody wanted. While the brothers and Patryk argued, the city counselor had an important piece of information to share. He informed the three that the reason why Agata was after the land was that it was way more valuable than they could imagine. Kaska’s land had a huge deposit of bogwood, which they were after. She would be the one making all the profit while the rest would be given rubbles. Patryk realized that it was her sister that had sent her bodyguard to threaten him for money. She had laid a trap for him and wanted to benefit from his situation. When Patryk came up with a plan, he asked the brothers to sell the land. Since he had the company shares as well, he probably created a new contract that Agata, without studying much, had signed. Instead of selling Kaska’s land, they created a company called Bees and Bogwood. Kaska had her land, and she could finally set up her control center as she had dreamt of.
When Agata brought the investor, Patryk joined in and introduced Wacus and Jedrus as the owners and chairman of his company, Bees and Bogwood, which has the largest deposit of bogwood in Central Europe. Agata was shocked to learn that her brother had schemed against her and had developed his own company. The investor left Agata and joined the brothers to take a look at the land. In the end, Patryk met Kaska at a wedding reception. She was sitting there all by herself when Patryk approached her. He pretended to search for a room, as he had before. Kaska agreed to rent him a room only if he lived up to her expectations and had the right skills for it. Patryk replied that he used to be a tamer of shrews until he failed one of them. The two kissed and had their happily ever after. The last dialogue seemed to be a reference to William Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew,” though the rest of the film does not have any connection to it.
From a bogus plot to average craft and humor that can be passed with a straight face, “The Taming of the Shrewd” can easily be skipped since it has nothing to offer.
“The Taming Of The Shrewd” is a 2022 romantic drama film directed by Anna Wieczur-Bluszcz. It is streaming on Netflix.
