Review of Romeo + Juliet (1996) by Filipeneto — 25 Jun 2018

Changing or using material from Shakespeare always requires courage and maturity. He's just the greatest British playwright of all time. Baz Luhrmann had this courage and much more, in a film that updates the most famous love story ever, bringing it to our time, to a great seaside town. This may displease the purists but its not original. This has happened to other stories by other authors. However, this film has the characteristic of keeping, almost in full, the original dialogues of Shakespeare. I confess that I really enjoyed listening to them, but there is a natural nasty discrepancy between the Renaissance text and the modern environment, they disagree with each other for the most obvious reasons and this damages the film. If the idea was to bring the story to modern times the most natural solution would have been to adapt the dialogues, but if the option were to keep Shakespeare's text untouched, the best would be a period film. Mixing both concepts did not work out.

The film features Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the lead roles. DiCaprio was still enjoying his stage as a "handsome movie boy", while Danes was just a beautiful unknown face to a Juliet who wanted to be naive and young. In fact, this actress employed very little in this film beyond her physical beauty, for she always sounded unconvincingly and never really seemed to be in love. The scenarios are quite curious and full of exaggerations. The Capulet house could be the mansion of any new-wealthy businessman, with its tacky décor and kitsch furnishings. These elements are also visible in the family mausoleum, with all the candles and neon crosses. In the middle of all, Danes and DiCaprio stand out for the sobriety of their costumes. Harold Perrineau probably gives us the most controversial performance, turning Mercutio into an African-American transvestite, full of glitter. Pete Postlethwaite did quite well as Father Laurence, as Miriam Margoyles in the maid role. The soundtrack wisely uses some pieces of classical music, but this doesn't harmonize with the modern pieces that were used as well.