Juliet & Romeo

This film is a bit all over the place and never quite hit on what I think it intended to.

First, the cinematography is often jumbled and rushed. The angles are off and the lighting is awkward, many scenes leaving you feeling almost as if you're watching an older person play a first-person open-wolrld video game for the first time. Additionally, it appears that they have chosen to add cold air breath effects to almost every person speaking, even in daytime scenes. This became very distracting for me.

The writing in the movie seemed way off. Many times the characters used Shakespearean speak for dialogue, then other times it was modern, felt like the writing of a high school play. Then all of the songs were lyrically written in completely different form of speaking than the way the characters normally spoke in dialogue.

On the topic of the songs, they felt completely out of place from the rest of the movie. In many musicals, the songs fit in with the scenes and they feel connected, relevant, and as if it is a continuation of a scene, not a break from it. In Julie & Romeo, the songs feel like a break from the scenes. They feel very much like an odd music video in the middle of watching this movie. Many odd music videos. Every song sounds so musically busy and over-produced and it is very obvious the characters are lip-syncing.

The only good parts about this film are the set and then some of the costumes (some costumes felt like costumes, maybe even from Spirit Halloween). Also the storyline, while different from the actual story of Romeo and Juliet, was overall fun and interesting. However, with all of the other poor choices and challenges the writers and director took with this movie, it left me really disliking the movie. It seemed like the film was majorly suffering from an identity crisis and didn't know if it should be a retelling of the original Shakespeare play, a musical in movie form, a musical in theatrical production form, a modern day love story, etc. Seems like they tried to include it all, jumble it together, and hoped for the best. This movie was a mess and I was counting down the time for it be over from the first song.

For anyone reading this and then going to see the film, good luck. Hopefully you'll feel differently about the movie and actually enjoy it.

There are some positives to this film: Costume design Scenery/staging Some of the cast - Derek Jacobi is a National Treasure, so we must assume that he was on holiday when his agent signed him up for this and you have to wonder how badly the Ruperts (Everett and Graves) needed the money but Jeremy Isaacs can have no excuse - he seems to be in everything these days.

But so much that is wrong (or downright bad) that it's difficult to know where to begin... The continuous intrusive music score - it's bad enough that it's there and I can't find words to stress the lie of "the greatest music of our time" (IMDb quote) but it's worse because cinemas turn the volume up so much. It is constant and drowns out much of the awful ...

Dialogue - trying desperately to hint back to Shakespeare and failing at every turn. There's even a moment when one of the cast says "oh wait" before delivering half a line from The Bard. And then there are the ...

Accents. OK so 14th century Verona would be a bit of a melting pot of cultures but Jeremy Isaacs' fake Yorkshire accent is just distracting even given everyone changing to American accents when they sing.

But the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel must be the total lack of chemistry between Juliet and Romeo. So little chemistry that no amount of their bad acting can make even a glimmer of a spark. It's actually a relief when they "die" (though being unconscious can't stop them singing)

At 2hrs 2mins of life that you will never get back, this is definitely one to miss but there's a closing threat of "to be continued..."

This film seemed to have come out of nowhere. I'm pretty up to date on all the latest releases but I had never heard of or seen a preview for a musical film about Romeo and Juliet. I was curious but also had pretty low expectations.

My friend and I saw the film on opening night with two others in the theater including the elderly gentleman who works there. The first 20 minutes were a bit rough, but then I got into it and am happy to report that this is a very good film.

I was impressed by the lavish production and period details. I loved how the film told the story of Romeo and Juliet using proper language but language that could be understood by all. The music had a contemporary pop feel and was both listenable and effective within the context of telling the story.

There are some well known actors who added to the intrigue for me, including Rebel Wilson and Rupert Everett. I enjoyed their performances and felt the acting was strong overall. I did feel Romeo was a bit bland. Perhaps that's why it's called Juliet and Romeo. But the two still had strong chemistry and the actress playing Juliet was terrific.

I wondered who the audience might be for this. It had a bit of a Moulin Rouge vibe so maybe there's a younger audience who might eventually discover it? I recommend this film to anyone who likes musicals and can appreciate the spectacle and an original take on a classic.

There are so, so many reasons this movie was a failure that to enumerate them would be an exercise in exhaustion. I think the most annoying part was also the most ridiculous: everyone talked in different accents, and sang in others. For example, Romeo and Juliet both use something like RP or a southern English accent, but Romeo's father uses a distinct Northern English brogue. Juliet's parents sound the same as her, for whatever reason. Other characters' accents are undeniably American, though we are supposed to believe they're all (or mostly) native residents of the same city. To confuse matters further, everyone sings in an American accent!

As for the rest, the music was poorly written and just as poorly produced, the script (all modern English) was practically phoned in, and the cinematography was amateurish. The worst offense, however, was a complete disregard for key character moments and interactions that lovers of Shakespeare cherish from the original play. Phrases and lines from the source text are haphazardly re-contextualized-and delivered so carelessly-that they lose their original power, poetry, and philosophical punch. After close to an hour of watching this joke of a production, I decided to revoke the rest of the time I had originally entrusted to the film (during the apothecary's song, if that matters). Maybe that undercuts the validity of my review, but I don't care. Enduring the rest of that awful movie isn't worth bolstering the arguments of an online review that hardly anyone will read.

In fairness, I liked the imagery of the musical scene where the main characters have parted ways from the church but are still together "in their hearts," or whatever, but ONLY on an aesthetic level, because everything else about that scene is creatively tragic.

Two households botched alike sans dignity, In fair Verona, where we waste our scene, From pop-song folly and false mimicry Of love, thus butchered on a streaming screen.

"O teach me how I should forget to think," Cries Romeo, yet I remember still The cringèd tunes, the cuts that made me blink, A tale of woe refashioned void of skill.

What light through yonder edit breaks? 'Tis cheap.

The soul of Juliet drowned in soulless gloss; And Romeo doth pout, but cannot weep- For depth and verse are both a grievous loss.

This trash, a mirror of our addled age: Where meme is king, and fools deface the stage.