Visually stunning, but this could have been better

Rating: 5/10 (14 April 2010)

Now I like Baz Luhrmann, I loved Moulin Rouge! and Australia was a much better film than people give credit for. However, I was disappointed with this version of Romeo and Juliet. I really liked the 1968 film with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey though that did have one or two problems.
Starting with the redeeming qualities, the film does look amazing. The cinematography is beautiful and the scenery is gorgeous. I also liked how the Capulet party was staged, all grand and lavish and Claire Danes's white swan dress was stunning. Harold Perrineau was perfect as Mercutio yes the singing wasn't great but it was for comedy, and Pete Postlethwaite was a noble and sympathetic Friar Lawrence. Miriam Margoyles is a fine actress and brought a real sense of maternal instinct to the role of Juliet's nurse. Regarding the character though, she could have been developed more, seeing as she was the main source of motherly affection in the play I would have liked to have seen that come across more. Also I would have liked to have seen more of Paris, a smaller role but a significant one. And Leonardo Di Caprio does have a boyish charm that compensates for any thoughts of whether he was too young. I liked how fast it moved too, it was almost exhilarating in pace, and I think the film makers did that purposefully to empathise how rushed Romeo and Juliet's relationship was. Plus the ending is very tragic as it should be.
However, there are other aspects that didn't quite work. I have no problem with a film that is updated, it worked in West Side Story, it worked in Carmen Jones, but it does feel jarring when the script is not modernised, with a poetic and archaic sounding script mixed by exhilarating non-stop action merging on screen it doesn't quite work. Plus when Benvolio says "Put up your swords" I personally felt "put down your guns"(as they were guns not swords here) would have been better. Baz Luhrmann's direction was also a disappointment, sometimes in the early scenes it was so over the top that I forgot I was watching a version of Romeo and Juliet and thought I was watching a flash cartoon. (I love animation don't get me wrong but that feel to this film doesn't bode well with me). The soundtrack I had mixed feelings about. I liked the music at the beginning and in the balcony scene, I liked the use of Mozart's Symphony Number 25 and I liked the use of Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde sung brilliantly by Leontyne Price, however some of the more contemporary songs felt somewhat intrusive. Claire Danes looked gorgeous, but her acting was rather unconvincing in places, her crying for instance felt very melodramatic and (please don't take this the wrong way) reminded me of a spoilt rich girl who cried when she didn't get her way. Finally, I have nothing personal against John Leguizamo though I am not fond of him either, but I thought he badly overdid the character of Tybalt, too much of the tough guy attitude and not enough of the grace and coolness of the Tybalt of the play and the 1968 version.
Overall, watchable but disappointing. It could be worse though, you could be watching that animated film with seals taking the roles of the Shakespearean characters, that did a much worse job at respecting(more like disrespecting) the material. 5/10 Bethany Cox