Letters to Juliet Movie Review
Letters to Juliet: Stars Amanda Seyfield, Chris Egan, Gael Garcia Bernal and Venessa Redgrave.
Sophie (Amanda) is engaged to Victor (Gael) She works as a fact checker at New Yorker Magazine and he is working on opening an Italian Restaurant in New York City. They decide to take an early honeymoon before the wedding and fly off to Verona Italy. Sophie is hoping for a romantic vacation but Victor is staying busy every day looking at products for the restaurant.
Sophie takes off and goes sight seeing on her own. She winds her way to a shrine to Juliet, Romeo’s live interest. There is a wall where young women write letters to Juliet looking for advice on their love lives. The wall is surrounded by teary eyed girls. At the end of the day she notes a woman picking up all the notes and putting them in a basket. Her journalistic curiosity takes over and she follows the woman to an office above a restaurant where a group of older women are pouring over the notes. She introduces herself and finds out that these are “Juliet’s secretary’s” and they are answering the letters.
The next day at the wall, Sophie discovers a letter stuck inside the wall written by a girl named Claire from England lamenting her love Lorenzo. The letter was written fifty years ago. Sophie, with the permission of the other ladies writes to Claire. A couple of days late she is sitting with the Juliet’s secretary’s” when in walks an irate young man, Charlie (Christopher Egan). He is angry because Clair (Vanessa Redgrave) his grandmother was disturbed by the letter and they came to Verona. Clair, a widow is still thinking about her Lorenzo whom she has not seen in fifty years. Sophie and a reluctant Charlie go looking for Lorenzo.
After a spate of special effect films, Letter to Juliet is a delight. The sets and scenery in Verona are beautiful. The plot is predictable but delightful non the less. Yes this is a chick flick but what the heck, it is enjoyable. It is a feast for the eyes and time well spent over a box of popcorn.
By the way, if you like this film, check out a film from 1992, Forever Young with Mel Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis. Elijah Wood was a young boy before he made it big with Lord of the Rings. It is a similar plot about a man who was cryogenically frozen and forgotten. He is defrosted and seeks his former love. Another delightful film. Most movie rental stores will have this.
