Letters to Juliet (2010)
Directed by Gary Winick
Written by Jose Rivera, Tim Sullivan
Starring Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan, Gael Garcia Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave
Release Date May 14th, 2010
Published May 15th, 2010
“Letters to Juliet” could be a very good movie. The premise is engaging and unique and the star, Amanda Seyfried, is so cute that I suspect kittens want to hold her. Sadly, as directed by Gary Winick, “Letters to Juliet” is a wit free wannabe weepy that adheres so closely to formula that one wonders if Winick was threatened with execution if he attempted any innovation.
”Letters to Juliet” stars Amanda Seyfried as Sophie, an American girl traveling to Verona Italy with her restaurateur fiancée (Gael Garcia Bernal) for a little romance and a lot of his business. While the fiancée runs off to collect high end wines and learn new recipes, Sophie heads for the tourist traps beginning with the legendary home of Juliet Capulet.
Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet” was set in Verona and the townspeople with a good eye for tourist capturing, have an ancient house with just the right kind of balcony to stand in for Juliet's home. Year after year heartbroken women leave their romantic wishes on the wall.
Over time another group of women have voluntarily gathered the letters to Juliet and set about answering them. Sophie witnesses the gathering of the letters and meets Juliet's secretaries. A writer herself, Sophie accepts an invitation to answer some letters while the fiancée continues his business.
While collecting the letters to Juliet, Sophie finds one that had not been found in nearly 50 years. The letter is from a 15 year old girl named Claire who met the man of her dreams in Verona but has succumbed to family pressures to leave him and return to England. She wants to know if she did the right thing or whether she should return to Italy.
Sophie writes back and her romantic notions inspire the now 65 year old Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) to return and find out what happened to her lover Lorenzo Bartolini (Franco Nero). Along for the ride, tsk tsk-ing all the way, is Claire's grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) who opposes the trip and holds special enmity for Sophie for inspiring the journey.
Naturally, Sophie offers to join the search for Lorenzo and thus begins a romantic journey across Italy. Or at least, that was the idea.
”Letters to Juliet” sadly is so forced and predictable that it becomes impossible to enjoy even the minor pleasures it has. Amanda Seyfried is an actress who is easy to enjoy. She has a great smile and most notably those great big eyes. It’s hard not to root for her in a romantic situation and yet “Letters to Juliet” somehow fails to capture that.
Director Gary Winick adheres to such a dull formula that even the most forgiving audience will have a hard time not deconstructing what doesn't work about it. Worst of the lot is poor Gael Garcia Bernal as the straw man fiancée. Placed as a roadblock to Sophie being with Charlie, Bernal's character is never formidable and instead exists to be awful and irritating enough that we don't mind seeing him cuckolded.
Spoiler alert, Sophie and Charlie are made for each other. They hate each other at first sight. They are forced together on a road trip. They have important things in common. Not for one moment is there an inkling of tension over whether Sophie and Charlie will be together and thus the movie meanders pointlessly toward its predicted conclusion.
The same lack of tension, drama or humor exists in Claire's search for Lorenzo. The same scene repeats several times as Claire meets a man named Lorenzo, quickly figures out that this colorful weirdo is not her Lorenzo and back in the car we go. We know from the trailer that she finds him and since the film is about Sophie and Charlie, the romantic reunion and its aftermath are an afterthought.
It's hard to hate a movie set in Italy. The wonderful landscapes and colorful people make for fantastic movie scenery. Oftentimes in “Letters to Juliet” you will notice that Cinematographer Marco Pontecorvo gets as lost as we do in the scenery, letting his stars slip into the background as he loses himself in the glories of the setting.
Pontecorvo's occasional distraction makes for some fun, unintentional comedy, but that is really the lone pleasure one can take from “Letters to Juliet.”
Yes, I realize punishing a romantic comedy for being predictable is like punishing a horror film for too much killing but Letters to Juliet really is lazier than most other romances in the ways it adheres to formula. Add that to the assets that the film wastes, including Seyfried's cuteness and Vanessa Redgrave's grace, and the whole thing becomes worse than just being lazy and formulaic.
