Review of Letters to Juliet (2010) by A Z — 25 Jan 2011

A good love story should contain one pivotal ingredient: love. Letters to Juliet asks you to believe in love, but doesn't show you love.

Letters to Juliet had so much potential. The whole concept of women writing to Juliet Capulet in hopes of getting romantic advice is great. Take that and add a little secret society of volunteers that write back to all the help seekers and you still have a great idea. Add in a letter that somehow has been lost for 50 years suddenly found and this has potential for romantic gold.

However, Letters to Juliet falls short by not giving our protagonist Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) a romantic involvement worth caring about. Sophie is a struggling writer engaged to a man who seems to pay her no mind whatsoever. The two go to Italy on a pre-wedding honeymoon... that's right... a pre-wedding honeymoon. While there, they spend almost no time with one another. Then Sophie meets "the Secretaries of Juliet" who write letters of encouragement and hope to each women who has left a letter below the balcony of Juliet Capulet. Sophie writes to a woman who stashed a letter there 50 years earlier. Days later, Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), the 65-year-old woman who wrote the letter, returns to Italy escorted by her reluctant grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) in search of her true love that got away.

Let's get to the predictable: Sophie falls out of love with her fiance and into love with Charlie. This was the obvious and inevitable. We see how selfish Sophie's fiance is and Claire keeps reminding Sophie about life and love and blah, blah, blah. What we never get to see is a legitimate connection between Sophie and Charlie that makes any sense. We have two characters who claim that they are in love with each other, but there is nothing even remotely evident that shows signs of a budding romance at any point.

Italy is beautiful. If you want to see some beautiful landscapes, then by all means rent Letters to Juliet. If you're looking for a film about true love, however, I say leave this letter sealed in its envelope.

I give Letters to Juliet a 21%.

Movies I recommend:

Amanda Seyfried: Mean Girls.

True Love Romance: The Notebook.