Not for Shakespeare beginners... or anyone else for that matter

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2005)

It's dangerous to expose someone who has never read Shakespeare to this film - so if you haven't, but you're crazy about Leonardo DiCaprio, try to read the book first before watching this piece of bizarre rendition - or, after you watch it, immediately read the book with open mind.
It may not be fair coming from me because I'm not a DiCaprio fan, but I think he's not the right lead actor. He's just *not* Romeo. Danes on the other hand is doing brilliantly as Juliet, and she's the only one close to making her Shakespearean lines believable in this weird MTV-style chaos of 'modern Verona'. The whole combination is just too absurd - I can't imagine how they decided on which parts of the amazing love story to destroy and revamp, and which parts to preserve - but it just doesn't work.
Think someone destroying parts of Colosseum and replacing those random parts with steel, glass, and colourful paints. You just don't do such thing!
If you love sparkling visuals like this, see Moulin Rouge instead - there, Luhrmann successfully mixed all his eccentric elements into one stunning musical. If you love Shakespeare, try 1968's Romeo and Juliet instead - it makes much more sense and is less of an insult to this great work of Shakespeare. And... if you love DiCaprio, you might as well watch Titanic instead.