Review of 'Letters to Juliet'
The Detroit News
There's more than a dash of old-fashioned schmaltz in the disarming romance "Letters to Juliet," and that's part of its charm.
A light-hearted, empty-headed piece of sentimental fluff about love young and old, "Letters" nevertheless achieves what it sets out to accomplish : an amusing, touching, reassuringly wholesome romantic travelogue of a film that flies by on its way to the inevitable happy ending.
Amanda Seyfried plays Sophie, on vacation in Italy with her enthusiastic but business-preoccupied fiance, Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal).
Staying in Verona, the setting of "Romeo and Juliet," Sophie stumbles on a wall where anguished lovers post letters daily to the fictional Juliet, and then discovers a group of women who actually answer these letters. While Victor is off doing business, Sophie joins the women and discovers a long-lost letter hidden in the wall.
Your classic hopeless romantic, Sophie answers the letter; and lo and behold, a few days later an elderly British woman named Claire (Vanessa Redgrave, predictably wonderful) arrives in town with her stiff grandson, Charlie (Christopher Egan).
It turns out Claire long ago abandoned the love of her life in Italy, and Sophie's reply has inspired her to come seek him out, a quest Charlie thinks is ridiculous.
Her beau being perpetually busy, Sophie sets out on a tour of most of Italy with Claire and Charlie, searching for Claire's Great Love, despite the fact that Charlie is antagonistic toward her.
We all know what that means, of course. In fact, "Letters to Juliet" manages to squeeze in just about every romantic cliché possible as it trots through quaint villages and past vineyards.
But director Gary Winick, who has had both success ("13 Going on 30") and horrid failure ("Bride Wars") in the romantic comedy genre, holds a steady balance here.
It helps that Seyfried is adorably big-eyed and sweet while Redgrave is ... well, she's Vanessa Redgrave, and she can do pretty much anything, including chew corn with absolute sincerity.
The bi-generational approach of the whole enterprise near guarantees moist eyes for everyone; except for those too cynical to swallow this silly love song of a movie. Pity their black hearts and revel in the foolishness if you will.
There's more than a dash of old-fashioned schmaltz in the disarming romance "Letters to Juliet," and that's part of its charm.
A light-hearted, empty-headed piece of sentimental fluff about love young and old, "Letters" nevertheless achieves what it sets out to accomplish : an amusing, touching, reassuringly wholesome romantic travelogue of a film that flies by on its way to the inevitable happy ending.
Amanda Seyfried plays Sophie, on vacation in Italy with her enthusiastic but business-preoccupied fiance, Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal).
Staying in Verona, the setting of "Romeo and Juliet," Sophie stumbles on a wall where anguished lovers post letters daily to the fictional Juliet, and then discovers a group of women who actually answer these letters. While Victor is off doing business, Sophie joins the women and discovers a long-lost letter hidden in the wall.
Your classic hopeless romantic, Sophie answers the letter; and lo and behold, a few days later an elderly British woman named Claire (Vanessa Redgrave, predictably wonderful) arrives in town with her stiff grandson, Charlie (Christopher Egan).
It turns out Claire long ago abandoned the love of her life in Italy, and Sophie's reply has inspired her to come seek him out, a quest Charlie thinks is ridiculous.
Her beau being perpetually busy, Sophie sets out on a tour of most of Italy with Claire and Charlie, searching for Claire's Great Love, despite the fact that Charlie is antagonistic toward her.
We all know what that means, of course. In fact, "Letters to Juliet" manages to squeeze in just about every romantic cliché possible as it trots through quaint villages and past vineyards.
But director Gary Winick, who has had both success ("13 Going on 30") and horrid failure ("Bride Wars") in the romantic comedy genre, holds a steady balance here.
It helps that Seyfried is adorably big-eyed and sweet while Redgrave is ... well, she's Vanessa Redgrave, and she can do pretty much anything, including chew corn with absolute sincerity.
The bi-generational approach of the whole enterprise near guarantees moist eyes for everyone; except for those too cynical to swallow this silly love song of a movie. Pity their black hearts and revel in the foolishness if you will.
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