Sunday, June 6, 2010

Letters to Juliet.

Is anybody in the mood for Italy's best? Grab a ticket to 'Letters to Juliet' and seat yourself back, because the movie has got everything covered. From their finest winery, to beautiful Italian scenery and food, (and lots of close-up shots of mega-hot Gael Garcia Bernal), it's already like booking a ticket to Italy first class. I wouldn't say the movie's a complete waste of time, excluding the cliched romantic comedy scenarios, it's a go if you are the kind of person who's okay with predictable romantic accidents, which to my reckoning, most of you fantasy-lovers confuse it with fate. Anyway, I didn't fall asleep half way through the movie, that's a good omen; maybe it's because of Sophie's (Amanda Seyfried) glowing blond hair always in the hot, Italian sun.


Sophie is an aspiring writer, who works as a fact checker for The New Yorker and is engaged to Italian chef Victor, (Gael Garcia Bernal). As predicted, the guy she's currently seeing (even though engaged to) is visibly Mr. Wrong, and at the end of the movie, Mr. Right happens to waltz in the picture and steals the girl. We follow Sophie and Victor jet off to Verona as a pre-honeymoon, where Victor spends his time on the look out for Italian food suppliers rather than showering Sophie with romantic Italian adventures. Feeling left out, bored, and uncomfortable, Sophie ( being the idiot that she is ) ditches and leaves Victor to his lavish boutique wineries and exclusive tours of dairy farms. Wandering around the street of beautiful Verona, Sophie discovers 'Juliet's balcony'. Women, young and old, writing with such haste and crying at the same time, scribbling their unfortunate tales of love, seeking the aid of Shakespeare's Juliet to blow their troubles away.

At the end of the day, Sophie finds out that it wasn't only one Juliet that would help, but a gang of four, and they call themselves, the Secretaries of Juliet. Working alongside the Juliets, Sophie uncovers a 50-year-old letter written by Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), anguished that she jilted her Italian beau who was supposedly her one true love.


Inspired and awed by Claire’s love tale, Sophie knew she had to share Claire’s story to the world, and decides to write a book about it, so she responded to Claire’s letter, which leads to Claire’s visit to Verona accompanied by her obnoxious, skeptical grandson, Charlie, played by pretty boy Christopher Egan. Next thing you know, you are whisked away to a journey in search of Lorenzo Bartolini, Claire’s long lost love.

Eventually, Claire and Lorenzo are reunited, in the most classic way you can imagine, Romeo arriving on his mighty white steed, and Juliet waiting on the other side with open arms.


I think, Letters to Juliet is rather different than all the other romantic comedies I’ve seen in my whole life. Besides the fact that, a touch of a little British humour made the movie exceptional, I love how they are able to portray and surface two entirely different types of personality traits, opposing thoughts and judgements, Charlie and Sophie. It’s like watching fireworks in the midnight sky. You would expect to be swept off your feet while watching a romantic comedy, that would promise you two solid hours of impossible imaginings, events that don’t exist in real life, because that is what the genre is about; Possibility of impossibilities. But instead, Charlie the realist, is like an anchor, simply brings the mood down with his matter-of-fact tone of voice and larger-than-life skepticism.



Be that as it may, Charlie’s annoying presence in the film made all other oncoming

events much more engaging. and the movie a bliss to watch. Other than that, Letters to Juliet is a wonderful movie to watch with your loved one.


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