You can tweak the title all you want, but that won’t change the fact that this is a bad movie. Yes, Juliet & Romeo is downright awful. Not that there have been bad Shakespeare adaptations before – there certainly have. But this is preposterous on so many levels.
Buy William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet Blu-rayIt’s as if director Timothy Scott Bogart wanted to go for his approach to Baz Luhrman’s filmography but toned it down to make it more accessible. And I’m not a Luhrman fan, by any means. Though his Romeo & Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio is still quite intriguing for what he went for. Bogart’s film feels more like desperation than inspiration.
You know the story, or, at least, you should. If you don’t, I strongly recommend reading Shakespeare’s original play or seeing many other renditions of it (both West Side Story versions are great alternate takes at the story). This most recent version takes place in Verona 1301, and from the beginning, we get heavy narration about the battle between the Montagues and the Capulets. But, oh, two of the opposing families meet and fall in love. There’s Juliet (Clara Rugaard) and Romeo (Jamie Ward), and there’s no need to divulge the rest of it.
A few creative differences and approaches are introduced here, but most of the storytelling and direction are routine from the beginning. Even with all the color pops and zips throughout, it all feels stale and overwrought.
The original songs all echo modern-day pop music, with no hint of originality in sight. It’s as if Katy Perry was backup consultant and took one or two tracks and went, “Yeah, go with that.” All the beats are bland, forgettable, and cheesy. Lovable actors like Dan Fogler and Rebel Wilson are given the opportunity to take center stage for their own theme songs. But it all feels forced and inauthentic.
Rugaard and Ward are perfectly fine as the star-crossed lovers, and I’m sure a better movie would have helped in amplifying their screen presence and chemistry. But it all gets drowned in mediocrity. Veteran actors like Jason Isaacs, Rupert Everett, and Derek Jacobi all seem there for the paycheck. None of them have a sense of liveliness, even a Shakespeare veteran like Jacobi. It’s almost like he saw the title and went, “Shakespeare? Sure, why not?” And that apathy spreads throughout the entire film.
