Letters To Juliet (2010)

Rating: PG
Director: Gary Winick 
Screenplay: Jose Rivera, Tim Sullivan
Genre: Comedy/Romance/Drama
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael García Bernal, Christopher Egan.

Letters To Juliet speaks for itself. Though occasionally charming and sweet in parts, this chick-flick is yet another clichéd film that lacks relatability and is full of one-liners that will provide you with nothing but cringes, as it follows Seyfried’s Sophie – a wholesome, American woman - who ventures on a pre-wedding holiday to the romantic Verona with her busy, fast-talking, selfish fiancé, Victor (Bernal) – a man who keeps yelling “Incredible! Incredible!” at pasta, bread and cheese.  

It is in Verona, where Sophie discovers “Juliet’s Secretaries” – a group of women selflessly replying to other teary-eyed women’s pleas to Shakespeare’s Juliet, begging for help with love.

Being a fact-checker, eager to begin her journalism career, Sophie jumps at a chance to run a story when she finds an un-answered, yellowed letter tucked away in the wall. Dun-dun-dun. Here, is where we are - supposedly - gripped.

After finally receiving a response to her pleas, Vanessa Redgrave’s Claire and her grandson, Charlie (Egan) embark on a long journey with the annoyingly cheerful Sophie to find Claire’s long lost love, Lorenzo Bartolleni, getting to know each other along the way.

Meanwhile, fiancé Victor is swanning off sniffing parmesan and popping corks, and already neglected Sophie feels drawn to charming Brit Charlie. We didn’t see that one coming. That’s not sarcastic; at first, we really didn’t see that one coming – but maybe that’s because the limited dialogue and vapid storyline had enticed us to sleep. 

Letters To Juliet is enjoyable (or more appropriate; ‘not painful to sit through’) for the forgiving romantics, but some may not relish in the idea of watching Vanessa Redgrave stare into the eyes of hundreds of aged Italian men for an hour and forty minutes. The film is a solid block of cheese. Despite what Victor may claim, this cheese is not incredible; it’s not quite Halloumi - but it is good. Like Cheddar. Or Dunlop – sweet, with an offish taste that not many can bear.