Adapted "Romeo" Not So Sweet

“Romeo and Juliet,” Italian director Carlo Carlei’s most ambitious adaptation to date, attempts to stand out from past renditions of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. While the film is shot in Verona and follows the play’s general plot, the movie makes the surprising choice to deviate from Shakespeare’s original dialogue. In this pursuit to use more relatable language and even include a few new scenes, the film fails miserably in its attempt to live up to the play and to other famous film adaptations, such as Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film starring Olivia Hussey or Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 modern-set adaptation with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

Great actors in a timeless story should make for a successful film, but the over-dramatic script and the heavy-handed camerawork end up being comical rather than dramatic. Every time  a main character is introduced, we see a profile of his or her face that lasts for a few seconds, more likely to elicit a chuckle than awe. In addition, though some famous lines from the original Shakespeare appear in the movie, the substituted screenplay, written by Julian Fellowes, the creator of “Downton Abbey,” lacks the gravitas of the original play, leaving some scenes feeling ridiculous. One scene that is particularly striking is when the Nurse (Lesley Manville) strikes up a conversation with Juliet about how sexy Romeo’s body is. This attempt to make the characters relatable to a modern audience comes off as corny and shallow, and even the addition of some original Shakespeare does not help the script. Fellowes should either have committed to Shakespeare or truly written something novel about the story, rather than trying to balance the two.

The talented cast is limited by the shortcomings of the script and directing. Paul Giamatti portrays Friar Laurence marvelously, shining as the redeeming performance of the film with his easy camera presence and dynamism. The other actors give very wooden and hyperbolic representations of their characters—Tybalt (Ed Westwick) is overly violent and spiteful, rendering his intensity somewhat hard to believe. Lord Capulet (Damian Lewis) is an abusive father and husband, but his anger and presence fail to intimidate.

The actors portraying the star-crossed lovers themselves, Douglas Booth and Hailee Steinfeld, deliver lukewarm performances. Booth plays a girl-crazy young Romeo, a sculptor and a talented warrior, who is more sensitive than his warrior cousin, Mercutio. His lust for love lacks depth, as does his devotion to Juliet (Steinfeld). Steinfeld brings Juliet’s passionate love for Romeo to life, showing that her love is more than a school-girl crush and rebellion against her parents’ wishes for her to marry Paris (Tom Wisdom). However, the 16-year-old Steinfeld looks like a young girl next to the fully grown and 21-year-old Booth. This visible difference in maturity is hard to overlook, though this may be a realistic depiction of the play.

This new “Romeo and Juliet” is not easy to watch. The film has little to offer other than the unintentional comedic value of the overdramatized camerawork and screenplay. The redeeming qualities of the film—Giamatti and the beautiful shots of Verona and the Italian countryside—are not worth the ticket price.