One of the first things I noticed about the movie was the fact that while the scene that’s set is a modern version of that of Shakespeare’s famed play, the lines have been left nigh unaltered. While usually I find the original text quite charming, in this case it was one of the things that bugged me the most. In my opinion, in this modern setting, it just doesn’t work very well at all. All it really does for the overall atmosphere of the movie and the characters in specific is lessen the credibility. The same thing goes for the hugely annoying fast-forwarding that is used as a medium to speed up the action. Honestly it only really makes me think of something put together by a grade-schooler who thinks what he’s doing is “so totally awesome!” No, but seriously, I was more and more annoyed every time that happened. Then there’s also the even more annoying (and mercifully less frequently used) screaming-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-while-swaying-heavily-from-side-to-side thing that the Nurse did whenever she felt she was in a tight spot. It’s all just so… childish.
On the other hand, I thought the casting of especially Romeo, Juliet and Friar Lawrence was really good. For Friar Lawrence and Romeo I don’t really have any brilliant, conclusive arguments but the fact that I just felt the actors suited their respective characters very well, or were at least quite capable of portraying them as such. Juliet was wonderful, mainly because she’s got this whole ‘sweet and innocent’ thing going for her. Obviously the Juliet in the original play was the same.
I did find the joke with the guns pretty humorous. It was quite inventive to name them after the swords that get mentioned along the way, so as to not have to change those things in the text.
And, of course, no matter the rest of the movie or the fact that by now I’m pretty intimately familiar with the whole story, every time I see or read a version in its entirety (giving me time to get attached to the characters) I find myself hoping profusely – and, of course, in vain – that maybe, just maybe, this time they won’t die. Especially in the moment itself, when Juliet woke up while Romeo hadn’t yet ingested the poison, I was watching tensely, avidly. But alas, it is the very moment Romeo realizes Juliet is not dead that spells his demise, because of which the horrified bride-turned-widow puts a gun to her head. For some reason that was one of the details which inspired the most perturbation from my part, though not for the obvious reasons. The picture was so pretty, ethereal almost, with the pair of lovers on a bed, surrounded by innumerable burning candles, that it would be a shame for Juliet to meet such a violent end – “Like fire and powder, which as they kiss, consume” – though I’m sure they didn’t mean that quite so literally. And then she pulled the trigger, and she collapsed back onto the bed, next to Romeo, who by that point had splatters of her blood on his face. How’s that for ruining the perfection?
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