By Daniel torres, ASST. sports editor
By Daniel torres, ASST. sports editor
True love cannot be defined, imitated or bought. It is something that is not only felt but something that entangles someone in a certain sense of augmented euphoria. Many movies try to showcase love and all of it’s worth. Some movies succeed and give the audience a heartfelt tear jerker. “Letters to Juliet,” on the other hand, gives us a fatuous look at the funny side of making a love movie.
Labeled a romantic comedy, the only comedy stemming from this movie is the cheesy lines it dishes out. Scanning through the crowd of about eight that paid to watch this movie, a young couple holding hands, laughing throughout the movie’s most poignant moments were the real romantics in the theater.
“Letters to Juliet” is no more than a farce that would have Shakespeare himself turning over in his grave. A semi-decent story destroyed by horrible dialogue and bad accents makes this love story a definite let down.
The story begins in New York as the leading lady, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a fact checker for the New Yorker, prepares to set out on her pre-honeymoon with her soon-to-be hubby, Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal). Preoccupied by the grand opening of his new Italian bistro, Victor sees this trip as less of a romantic week away with his lovely fiancé, and more of a taste test for the many delicacies he plans to offer at his restaurant.
The couple travel out to beautiful Verona, the city where Romeo and Juliet professed their love to one another. Distracted with suppliers and business deals, Victor essentially leaves Sophie to explore the quaint city on her own. Sophie comes across the house of Juliet, where she finds a number of hopeless romantics writing the love-forsaken heroine. These lovelorn writers ask for Juliet’s advice on how to aid their broken hearts.
This part of the movie is the most baffling. The Juliet I read about is a 13 year-old girl who, in the name of love, kills herself over a boy who she knew so briefly. Seems like this isn’t the best person you’d want advice on love from.
Nevertheless, Sophie comes across a group of ladies deeming themselves Juliet’s secretaries, who respond to each letter with advice and assurance. With them, Sophie discovers, hidden behind in the wall, a letter dated 50 years earlier.
Sophie, an aspiring writer, decides to write back, hoping the letter will one day reach its author. Surprisingly, a week later, Sophie meets Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), the elderly woman who 50 years earlier was at the very same spot writing to Juliet.
Chaperoned by her griping and skeptical grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan), Claire, rejuvenated with hope after reading Sophie’s response, sets out to find her long lost love, whom she had left waiting 50 years before. Sophie, eager to tell a story of true love rekindled, decides to join them and write about their scenic trip through Italy.
In search of Claire’s long lost Romeo, the trio must search through of myriad of Lorenzo Bartolini’s to find the right one. Finding a specific Lorenzo Bartolini in Italy is like looking for a John Smith here in the States.
Claire is reunited with the right Lorenzo (Franco Nero), who bares a striking resemblance to the “most interesting man in the world” we all know and love from those hilarious beer commercials.
Through this journey, we see Sophie and Charlie ignite a spark between one another in what inevitably turns into another predictable romance.
“Letters to Juliet” is not the epic love story it aspires to be. In fact it’s not even a interesting first date. It’s more like a bad blind date.