Cine Me

 

 

Romeo and Juliet

 

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645131/

 

Some generations get a Romeo and Juliet that speaks to their times -- Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 version played right into flower power and rebellious attitudes, while Baz Luhrmann's 1996 modernized, gangsterized take hit the right urban nerve for its moment. Today's teenagers will have to make do with this decorous but bland version, which with its straightforward presentation and significantly abridged text calls to mind the old Classics Illustrated comic books of classic literature. The older the actors here, the better they are, as pros like Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis have it all over low-voltage young leads Douglas Booth and Hailee Steinfeld. Relativity will be lucky to milk anything more than a moderate take from this pretty but unexciting enactment.

 

For whatever reason, 'tis the season for the Montagues and Capulets, for along with this film come two contemporaneous New York stage versions, one starring Orlando Bloom and another featuring Elizabeth Olsen. There's even a lesbian stage adaptation, with a female Romeo, in Philadelphia. To be sure, Romeo and Juliet remains one of the Bard's hardiest perennials, a tragedy, which, done at least halfway right, can squeeze tears out of all but the most hardened souls. Even here, the final scenes are effective enough to send those seeing the work for the first time, especially teenage girls, into paroxysms of romantic grief.

 

After the reinvention of Baz Lurhmann's 1990s update, the star-crossed lovers go back to square one with this "more traditional, romantic vision of the play", replete with "sumptuous locations, costumes and production design", courtesy of glass-swan producers turned film-producers Swarovski. So, it's blingtastic rewritten cod-Shakespeare ahoy as we romp gaily through scenic Italian locales, guided by screenwriter Julian Fellowes who knows a thing or two about good-looking country houses.

 

Hailee Steinfeld as Juliet gets little chance to display the true grit that first marked her out as a talent to watch, while Douglas Booth makes for a peculiarly pouty Romeo – handsome of hair, yet uninvolving of character. Paul Giamatti skulks around chewing the scenery as Friar Laurence, Damian Lewis draws the short straw in the unflattering Shakespearean short-back-and-sides department and Stellan Skarsgård appears to be on the verge of bursting into laughter, even during the funerals.
Meanwhile, the score swirls endlessly round and around, trumpeting every emotion, tearing at every heartstring and generally boasting so much windmilling piano tinkling that I half expected Holly Hunter to turn up in a bonnet and throw herself speechlessly into the raging sea.

 

Carlo Carlei’s Romeo and Juliet—a lush, conventional bodice-ripper of an adaptation with a screenplay (by Downton Abbey’s Julian Fellowes) that borrows heavily from Shakespeare without quite being Shakespeare—feels like a quaint throwback to an earlier era in which a little-known director could just up and film a Shakespeare play, without big stars or a modern interpretive concept. I’m not sure how appealing this movie will be to the teen and young adult audience at which it seems to be aimed: Kids brought up on the cosmic battles and forbidden passions of Twilight and Harry Potter may find the thwarted longings of the youth of medieval Verona too wanly special-effects-free to hold their interest even for its slim 118-minute running time.

 

I was asked by someone why I went to go watch the movie because we all know how it ends. It is exactly how it ends that makes this movie based off Shakespeare's play so great and we all know how it ends so there's no need to explain.

The acting was great and the movie offered a great visual escape for its entire running length. I agree with another poster that this movie does not move too fast but rather stays fairly true to the actual play. Fans of the play will definitely be pleased by balcony scene where Romeo is professing his love for Juliet as it is one of the better scenes in the movie. If you're a fan of Shakespeare you'll definitely enjoy this movie.

 

 Still, there are reasons to see this Romeo and Juliet—it’s just a shame that Romeo and Juliet are not chief among them.