Great direction/Horrid acting

Rating: Null/10 (2 February 2002)

After being wowed by Moulin Rouge, I rented Mr. Lurhmann's version of this classic play because I had missed it years ago in the theater.
Well, Baz doesn't disappoint here. It is a well thought out, modern adaptation of the play that makes sense and actually enhances some of the secenes. The visual style is stunning and the direction fluid and exciting. There's no doubt about Luhrmann's directorial prowess.
Where this movie ultimately fails is in the casting. There are some really miserable performances here. My God, did they ever think of getting a dialogue coach. So much of it is shouted or mumbled into an incongruous jumble. Part of Romeo and Juliet's fame as a play is the poetry of the lines. Most of the actors in this version didn't have a clue.

Leonardo DiCaprio looks all right but many of his lines are unintelligible and delivered in an annoying whine. Claire Danes gives a horridly flat performance and she appears not to know what the words mean. Both of them suffer from a continual bad hair day which ultimately distracts from the romance and fantasy. The final scene is the best that either of them achieve, but that's due to Luhrmann's brilliant stage timing.

Paul Sorvino is so ridiculously over the top as a mafioso Capulet that it is almost laughable. And why does Mrs. Capulet have a southern accent??? John Leguziamo as Tybalt is also hard to understand and too one dimensional in his villainy. Brian Denehey looks bored with the whole project. And the guy plaing the Prince (a sort of police chief) just shouts all the time; an unfortunate, unintended parody of perceived African-American social baldness.
The best performances in the movie are Pete Postelwaite's sensative Friar and the young Paul Rudd as Paris who proves that teenage actors CAN articulate the Shakespearean language.
Frankly Luhrmann chose these actors to sell tickets to teenie boppers and for that, I guess (since it probably lured masses of teens to a Shakespeare play)we should thank him. It's just too bad that it ruined his movie.
Could he have done better? Certainly! Robert Sean Leonard looks as good as DiCaprio and would have made the words meaningful. And any number of seasoned Shakespearean actors (young and old) could have done these roles within Luhrmann's concept and made more sense of the text.
So a really interesting attempt ruined by incompetent casting. I'll stick with Moulin Rouge; there the casting is superb!