Any movie with a Shakespearean premise, Taylor Swift theme song, and PG rating is sure to pull out all the cheesy, romantic stops possible. Letters to Juliet is no exception. With an over the top setting, against all odds plot, and improbable character successes, the new film, starring Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls, Jennifer’s Body), is a highly predictable romantic comedy with tidbits of slightly redeeming charm.
Letters to Juliet tells the story of a young American girl, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), who travels with her restaurant owner fiancé to Verona on a prehoneymoon. The couple’s different ideas of fun lead Sophie to discover the secretaries of Juliet, who answer letters left at the famous Juliet Capulet’s house in the city. When Sophie finds a 50 year old letter she writes back inspiring Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) to come back and search for her lost love. Sophie ends up tagging along with Claire and her cynical yet dashing grandson Charlie (Chris Egan) on their journey. Sophie quickly begins questioning her own love life and wondering if her fiancé is truly the one for her.
Letters to Juliet might as well be set in a fantasy world. The premise enough is over the top but when you add in the unrealistic lifestyles of its main characters, the story goes from charming to ridiculous. Romantic comedies are designed to sweep us up in an unrealistic world of fate and romance, but the charm lies in the hint of the real world that let’s audiences relish in the thought, even for a second, that this type of love could be theirs. The story in this film stretches so far from reality that it all becomes uncharmingly cheesy. Claire’s search for Lorenzo is warmingly fun, but Sophie’s unbelievable lifestyle, relationship, and apparent unending access to world travel strip away any realistic aspects.
Like I said, Claire’s search for her long lost Lorenzo is quite a delight to watch. Vanessa Redgrave’s performance is flawless. Granted, playing this type of characters isn’t the biggest acting challenge of the century, but she brings a raw sense of energy and dynamic to the screen that can be appreciated. Amanda Seyfried is also cute as always and does a fairly good job for what she was given. Chris Egan’s performance is nothing extraordinary. He really doesn’t have the looks or energy to pull off the feel good prince charming ladies love to fawn over.
The most annoying thing about the film is the blatant overuse of green screen. Nearly every scene’s backdrop is obviously fake. If Summit really believed in this movie they should have forked over the cash to use an authentic set and film more scenes on location. I understand the use of green screen to fill in where shooting on location isn’t plausible, but practically the entire film just looks cheap and makes audiences feel cheated. The cast and crew had to be in Italy for some of the time so cutting corners just wasn’t a good choice. For example, When in Rome is no cinematic masterpiece, but the fact that a majority of the movie was filmed on location in Italy truly made a huge difference in the film’s enjoyablity and authenticity.
Letters to Juliet is nothing to swoon over. The story offers some charming qualities, which are hard to detect under all the cheese and predictability. And really?... a balcony scene? You’ve got to be kidding.
