Advance Screening Review: "Letters To Juliet"

[Screening Date: April 15 / Release Date: May 14]

Ah, movie trailers. Remember the good old days when they showed you just enough to whet your appetite and drum up word-of-mouth excitement around the film in question? Then, when you finally sat down to watch the movie itself, you had an idea of what to expect but still managed to be surprised by the finished product?

Well… those days are gone, and “Letters To Juliet” is little more than the latest film to fall victim to what I like to call “trailer-itis”: the compulsive, nonsensical need of studios to so thoroughly spell out their movies that the viewing public can’t even question what they’re about, but somehow still make them appear interesting enough to shell out 10 bucks to see.

In this unfortunate textbook example, everything you need to know about the film that should have been highlights and surprises is literally telegraphed from start to finish, *including* most of the ending! I wish I hadn’t seen the trailer prior to watching the movie, because I might have been more forgiving of its predictability had there been slightly more substance than what the preview teased (ahem, ruined) for us.

“Juliet” follows fact-checker-waiting-to-be-writer Sophie (Amanda Seyfried, charming as always) on a pre-honeymoon to Italy with her distracted fiancé (Gael Garcia Bernal, woefully miscast). He’s opening a restaurant back home, so while researching the various culinary inspirations around him, she’s left to take in the sights by herself.

Sophie discovers a site in Verona, the setting of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet,” where people leave letters asking Juliet for love advice at the wall where Romeo climbed to her balcony. To maintain this tradition, a group of women respond to the letters, and after meeting them, Sophie decides this is her chance to shine. Upon finding an old, unanswered letter hidden in the bricks, Sophie is touched by the plea and writes back.

At this point, what started out as a great (if cutesy) premise becomes increasingly weaker as the story plays out. Veteran actress Vanessa Redgrave shows up as Claire, the author of the old letter who’s inspired by Sophie’s letter to search for her lost love, with her snarky grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) in tow. Claire and Sophie share the same optimism about love; Charlie is the token cynic (who, of course, prefers “realist”).

As you might expect, Sophie and Charlie take an immediate dislike to each other, so naturally the film explores the role of romance in our lives through contrasting these two characters’ outlooks. In the first of several missteps, they never make us feel like there’s as much at stake in their blossoming relationship as there is in Claire’s attempts to restore hers. To me, these are characters who “fall in love” not because they’ve made a tangible connection and grown closer by overcoming shared obstacles, but because they conveniently “have to” for the movie to “work.” Thankfully, Seyfried and Egan have enough chemistry for us to endure most of their back-and-forth banter, because heaven knows it’s been done before -- and better.

By the end of the movie, “before and better” had become the mantra I was embracing from a critical perspective. From an emotional perspective, however, there was still a little room left for investment in the film. During Claire’s unabashedly romantic quest, “Letters To Juliet” does succeed in making some bold statements about life and love, but never quite finds the right tone in which to do so. In the confines of its PG-rated box, the film tries too hard to show off a jaded mind when it actually works best using its pure, syrupy heart.

That said, the movie isn’t a complete waste. It’s an absolute joy to see Redgrave, still at the top of her game, so effortlessly manage to inject dignity, grace, and believability into the otherwise bland and by-the-numbers proceedings. It’s largely thanks to her that the film ends up with some witty dialogue and genuinely sweet moments that keep it from drifting too unrepentantly far toward cliché -- or worse, boredom. Also steering us clear of boredom is the stunning cinematography. The film was so beautifully shot on location that the Italian board of tourism should be thanking the filmmakers for the jump in travel they’re bound to see.

Unfortunately, there’s just as much to loathe here as there is to love, which leaves the movie squarely in the middle of the road. Had they put the same amount of work into making “Letters To Juliet” feel as good as it looks, it wouldn’t succumb to the same contrivances it so desperately tries to avoid. {C+}