Review: Letters To Juliet

Tuesdays are date night with my most favourite person in the world: myself.

Long story short: After returning from Japan, I moved back home to a city where my friends had long abandoned ship, as did everyone else remotely close in age and interests. I’ve had to learn that to do anything, I need to be able to do them by myself. Luckily, my Tuesdays nights are free from work, so I can go see whatever movie I like for $4, or $8 something with a medium popcorn and pop. I use this day to see movies I consider risky.

So far, both the movies I’ve seen have been well beyond my expectations.

Last night, I went to go see Letters to Juliet. I really didn’t expect much. I mean, think of the concept of this. Writer goes to Verona to unite a woman who wrote a letter to Juliet 50 years previous.

But you know what? Sometimes, you just need a mindless romance.

When you go to see a romance movie, you’re not going to see thought provoking story lines. You don’t want things to be too heavy, or too much. The number one most important thing is that you need to come out of the movie feeling happy, as if this can happen to you one day.

I really felt that this movie hit the spot, in regards to what I expect from a romance.

First, we have a plot that a lot of people can relate to. Everyone should be familiar with the story of Romeo and Juliet. What is added to this is the modern tradition of people writing letters and leaving them at Juliet’s balcony (this actually exists?! I am SO going to Verona…)

Next, we have a lead character that we can relate to.  Sophie has a potentially glamorous job, but she is still young,  so she is at the bottom of the ladder. She has a pretty sweet job, though it’s not unbelievable that someone her age would have that job (none of this living in a penthouse in Manhattan at 28 going on – a huge pet peeve of mine) and her boyfriend could be really awesome. Could be. But of course, this is a romance, you know she won’t stay with him. The guy is obsessed with his work. Once again, he’s another young guy filled with potential.

And last, but certainly not least, is the setting. Really, when you set a romance movie in Italy, as long as you show a lot of the landscape and the natural beauty, you can’t go wrong. And this movie did an amazing job of not wasting time in the cities and showing familiar spots. We get to see vineyards and fields and farms and old Italian homes and really get away from the tried and trusted cities. I could watch the movie again, just for the visuals.

So, we have a plot I can relate to, a character who I can relate to, and a setting that makes me want to travel to Italy asap. To me, the rest comes naturally. Sophie ends up helping the secretaries of Juliet, replying to a letter written 50 years earlier. Thanks to the magic of cinema, only days later, the letter arrives and the woman is in Italy to take her advice, with her charming, British grandson in tow. With that, Sophie and the two others go off on a whirlwind tour of Italy, looking for her long lost love.

I think my most favourite thing about this movie was the fact that the main love story was not about some 21 year old beautiful girl who was getting her happily ever after. I found myself loving Claire’s journey (the one who wrote the original letter to Juliet) through Italy, because it was a beautiful reminder that love isn’t just something that happens after high school, and it’s not going to bring you all the joy in the world. Claire has loved and had love lost. Through her journey through Italy, I found myself thinking that even if Lorenzo (her Romeo) wasn’t alive any more, or was never found, it was such a sweet journey of exploration, getting to see a lot of brief moments of human kindness through her interactions with the people she thinks might be Lorenzo. They all treat her wonderfully, and she is so sweet back, I found myself thinking that those moments were my favourite parts.

I feel like I’m going on way too long here, but before I wrap this up, I have to say something about Charlie, who was the grandson and the obvious love interest to Sophie. At first, I rolled my eyes at him, because he was a British prat. How stereotypical can you get? And for a while, he really was that stereotype. But it was really nice to see how they broke him down. Sophie helped explain his sceptical exterior, which then lead to him being able to open up slowly. I found his transformation from prat to adorable a bit too sudden, but that’s alright, and can be forgiven. By the end, when they’re playing up to stereotypes and cliches, even the characters acknowledge how ridiculous it is, which to me, makes it all better because we know the writers knew it was silly. But we love silly, secretly.

So, all in all, I really recommend this movie, especially if you’re in the mood for that happy romance that isn’t bogged down too much with comedy and annoying Katherine Heigl moments (I am so not into her movies). The ending makes me happy, the setting makes me want to travel, and the plot doesn’t make me pine and wish I were someone else, but instead makes me want to just follow my heart like the characters in the movie chose to.