Review of Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) by Henry P — 31 Jan 2015

If you grew up loving movies like Toy Story and Shrek and can take Shakespeare's plays with a grain of salt, then Gnomeo and Juliet is a great addition to the list of recent Shakespeare adaptations. Director Kelly Asbury brings a parody of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" to the big screen that will tug at your heartstrings and leave your inner child crying with laughter. Loosely following the plot of Shakespeare's play, two rival parties of garden gnomes fight to see whose backyard is the more glorious. With a brilliant animation job and garden gnomes that immediately turn to stone when a human is within sight, this movie will bring all sorts of nostalgic feelings up for both parents and young people who fell in love with the Toy Story series.

In addition to appealing to a generation of young adults who grew up on toys that came alive and went on adventures, Gnomeo and Juliet at its core remains a lighthearted children's movie about true love. Asbury made the filmic choice to have an alternate ending where both Gnomeo and Juliet live happily ever after, and the feuding gnomes settle their differences. Though a dramatic and slightly unsettling change from what we all expect in a Romeo and Juliet adaptation, it provides children with a more fulfilling and age-appropriate ending. For those who know how the tale is supposed to end, the movie provides an interesting insight into how things could have turned out differently, and for the kids, it provides a great first experience of Shakespeare's greatest tragedy; never mind that their hearts will be shattered later when they learn how the story truly ends.

Though this is at its base, a children's movie, young adults will enjoy the pop-culture references and crude jokes, while the older generations will recognize the unmistakably upbeat Elton John soundtrack throughout the movie. Asbury is very aware that the story of Romeo and Juliet has been retold a million and one times, and that his audience knows the story by heart. Because of this, Asbury takes a fresher, comedic approach to his retelling, with a movie that constantly makes fun of itself. The film starts off with an exceptional opening scene where the gnome narrator walks onto a stage telling the audience that "this story has been done...a lot, but this film will be different." He then begins reciting the prologue that any Romeo and Juliet enthusiast has heard in nearly every Shakespeare adaptation from Cukor to Luhrman, but is yanked out of the shot before he gets to the end. This essentially sums up the humor of the film. Numerous clever references to other movies will keep adults entertained, while the kids can enjoy the possibility that they may have living garden gnomes in their backyard.

The only part of the film that could have been done better was the portrayal of Juliet's character. More recent adaptations of the play like Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet and Carlei's Romeo and Juliet focus extensively on Juliet's perspective, especially her relationship with her father concerning marriage. Asbury's adaptation is no different. All three movies criticize the concept of arranged marriages and show Juliet to be a rebellious teenage girl, but Gnomeo and Juliet amps this up by portraying Juliet as a genuinely strong and dominant female character rather than the passive character she usually is seen as. She saves Gnomeo on more than one occasion, and handles Gnomeo's "death" far better than she does in other films. While she sets a wonderful example for young girls everywhere, the change also dramatically upsets the audience's perception of Gnomeo and Juliet's relationship, making the give and take between the two much more unequal than other films. Other adaptations, especially Carlei's film, criticize the topic of arranged marriages and the feminine aura in a manner that still feels authentically Shakespearian than Asbury's film does.

Overall, this is a great film for a person of any age. It has everything: morals and lots of action scenes for the young ones, humor and cultural references for the young adults, and a great take on Shakespeare that most adults will genuinely appreciate. It is hard to make an appropriate adaptation of Romeo and Juliet for those who don't yet know the darker side of the world, but Asbury does it with such passion, such humor, and such confidence, that even the most high-browed Shakespeare critic would be hard-pressed to fully dismiss this film outright.