Private Romeo

Brotherhood and Love....and not about the bashing....and not about the hate....and not about the struggle. Because...I think we need more films like that....I think we need more things saying that Love is Universal....and it is beautiful, no matter what. And I'm really proud to be a part of this project."

(( These words are the heartfelt expressions of Matty Doyle (Glenn / Juliet), in preparing to give an encore rendition of "You Made Me Love You", at the following YouTube address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25_D9qvxJ0c ))

Bringing life and passion to a 400+ year old play is a gutsy, yet potentially tricky endeavor. In doing so, Director Alan Brown had a "Nice" idea (he's had them before). BUT...will raw Shakespeare (let alone with a cast not-trained-in-Shakespeare) pull in everyday Gay viewers around the world? Time and return on expenses will tell. Though I personally hunger for the success of this film work, that "BUT" remains a potential killer for his efforts.

Still and all, if anything can keep this film work alive...and long remembered...it will the touching, yet sizzling, Love Story given us by Seth Numrich (Sam / Romeo) and Matt Doyle (Glenn / Juliet). They hold absolutely nothing back in both their emotional and physical lovemaking. Their scenes together are oh-so-easy for this reviewer to play, and replay again.

BUT, now I must be honest...and say that about the basics of this Story---the basics of Shakespeare---I am ill-equipped to give you more. Yet, there is someone....someone from the several existing reviews of this film, whose deeply descriptive and perceptive words say it all. And those words belong to Rachel Schweissinger, and can be found in her May 19, 2012 review at Amazon.com, entitled: "Outstanding, Heartbreaking, Haunting, Beautiful". Do yourself a favor and read them.

PS--Thank you, Matt Doyle, for giving us a today's-rendition of "You Made Me Love You." It's right up there with another favorite---Harry Nilsson's 1973** track of that same song. And perhaps you'll consider another visit to "Feinsteins" and give us your go at R & J's true Signature Song: "Always" (the perfect lyrics for J. to sing to R.). Oh, and Harry needs the competition.

**Audio CD/MP3---"A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night"

Just watched Private Romeo and I gotta say I was disappointed after all the positive comments & reviews.

I understood that the story was a modern take on the Romeo & Juliet story set in a boys' military academy. For me it just didn't work.

I tried to get behind the "gender blind" casting, a variation on "color blind" casting in which the audience pretends NOT to notice a the actors race and just goes with the character as written. For me this didn't work because the characters adhered so loosely to the characters as written.

The story is all about how two factions are brought to grief when a member of each faction kills themselves after becoming a couple.

In this version, I couldn't tell the factions apart or even if there really were any. There were no parental arranged marriages, no killing of cousins in duels, and even bigger departures from the story... but that would be telling!

I'm a big fan of restaging Shakespeare in other scenarios. West Side Story and Ran are great examples where "bending the Bard" actually added new and interesting aspects to an already classic tale, but this one added nothing and detracted a LOT. I saw all of my favorite speeches of the play marred and made less by this staging.

Also the production values were glaringly deficient in spots. Why stage a military drill scene without bothering to ensure uniform uniforms, and with so small a number of "cadets?"

This felt much less organic throughout than that Woody Allen movie where he took an already released Japanese movie and substituted his own dialogue.

The boys were pretty and there were moments where the actors managed to get my interest & empathy DESPITE the total lack of any help from the vehicle they were performing in.

It may well be me. There are a number of very positive reviews of this film by critics from The NY Times and The Village Voice et. al. but after seeing this I'm if some form of payola wasn't involved...

I saw the film at Outfest at the Ford. We were a trapped audience due to the stacked parking in the lot. Otherwise, I believe many would have left early. Lots of grumbles as we were walking out. No one understood the movie. It was a warped idea of a modern Romeo & Juliet that just didn't work. The script was forced to format. The actors were good and surprisingly got an award from Outfest for their acting. It also had moments of music video stuff out of the blue thrown into the middle of the movie that didn't have anything to do with the plot. No one I talked to liked the movie accept the distributor who picked it up over all the other great movies that played at the festival.

Updated Shakespeare is all the rage since the days of doing Hamlet in modern dress, or the nude version. We have seen and enjoyed everything from Richard III to Coriolanus in updated fashion.

A few years back we offered a course in Updated Shakespeare to English majors, and we found a growing army of updated tales on film, whether it was Much Ado about Nothing or A Midsummer Night's Dream.

We even loved Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo and Juliet, and we came with some trepidation to something called Private Romeo.

The premise seemed a mite strained. A few cadets at a military academy are left alone at the campus, fending for themselves while the officers and other cadets are off on maneuvers. In one class the stranded and bereft young cadets are studying Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, and they seem to begin to live it.

The idea is not so far-fetched, as the original play deals with young hothead teenage gang members in rival factions. There is a secret love story interwoven among the hostilities and budding male adolescent angst.

So it is in Private Romeo. The shock of the rival gangs over Romeo's love may be more palatable because the forbidden affair is with another cadet. We found the Shakespearean dialog most apt to cover the situation.

The idea of first-love being misguided and overly passionate may befit a gay tale of coming out among cadets.

We can forgive a small budget movie stretching its wings, and we can even forgive a half dozen cadets looking like the Glee Club, not future ROTC members. Apart from that, the story picks up steam under director Alan Brown.

Scenes from R&J are cleverly woven into conversations about Romeo's unorthodox military affair. Action plays out on basketball court and chemistry lab. Like Elizabethan times, male actors play female roles like Nurse and Juliet's mother, this time in the guise of young cadets. The actors handle multiple roles and dialog is lifted from Shakespeare to meet the situation.

This brave effort features Matt Doyle as Cadet Mangan and his alter ego Juliet. Doyle is soft and vulnerable, but hardly feminine or in drag. Seth Numrich plays Cadet Singleton and Romeo. They are commendable.

If all male casts disturb you, you would not have been able to appreciate Shakespeare's work played by all male casts in the writer's lifetime.

This is quite a creative reimagining of the "Romeo & Juliet" story that shifts the setting from Verona to an American military academy. Therein, are eight cadets who essentially adopt the roles of the Montagues and Capulets - but with a difference. All are male. Using an hybrid of Shakespeare's own language and a modern day soundtrack along with an overtly militaristic scenario, the love story unfolds. Creator Alan Brown has done quite well here. Clearly the budget was pretty minimal, but he uses light and shadow, pulls focus, includes dance and sport - all to create, effectively enough, a modern-day appreciation of affection, bigotry and intolerance. It's not that it swipes at the US military's approach to being gay, per se, it highlights it - and it also demonstrates that regardless of the overarching "policy", it is down to individual people to implement lasting change and improvements. The cast work well together and the film, though it does require concentration, flows along well. Maybe a bit too long, and the sound mix isn't always the best - but it's an interesting watch this.