Review of Letters to Juliet (2010) by Joe A — 02 Dec 2011

Letters to Juliet is a predictable and formula romantic comedy but, it charms you and draws you in anyway even thought you know how it's going to turn out. Amanda Seyfried is Sophie, a young writer who, while on vacation in Italy with her fiance', stumbles upon The Secretaries of Juliet, a group of women who answer the letters that hundreds of broken hearted women write to Juliet Capulet at the place of her birth.

Sophie's writer instincts kick in and she answers a years old letter which throws her and the letter's widowed author Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) into a trek across Italy to find a lost love from her youth and presenting Sophie with the perfect story to use as her big break.

Her grandson (Chris Egan) is along for the ride and we all know what's going to happen. And that's where this routine romcom set's itself apart. It charms you with it's quaint angle of lovelorn women writing to the legendary Juliet for help and the 'secretaries' which answer.

It presents a cast of very likeable characters to get attached to and takes them on an old fashioned quest across the beautifully captured Italian countryside to find an ages lost love and possibly a new unexpected one.

Sure it's schmaltzy but, it works anyway. We want Claire to find her Lorenzo and we want Sophie to fall for the charming yet cynical Charlie and leave her work-a-holic finace'. And we know as soon as the plot is set in motion how it will end up but, we go along for the ride anyway.

In this case it's not the destination but, the old fashioned charm of the journey that makes it worth while. A fun, cute movie despite being so cliche'.