Some Music, but otherwise, Uncommonly Artificial

Rating: 1/10 (14 February 2003)

Romeo+Juliet (1996)
Some Music, but otherwise, Uncommonly Artificial
It is rarely that one comes across this kind of joke, and that is a patronizing statement. This film should be branded as a transmogrification of a gem. Now one would be compelled to compare this movie with Moulin Rouge, the director's more recent, much acclaimed, over rated, effort. In that case, too, he brought the 1950's classic tragedy down to a messy soup. I was inclined to put the technique to the surrealist genre, and now I think that I was being too generous.
But Romeo+Juliet really hits the rock bottom. The drama, transported some five centuries forward, and the whole drama played out of context (the characters, including the TV newsreader, speaking in the archaic language) was funny, to say the least. And, in the maze of modern gadgetry, Juliet's mansion (or any other mansion or shop for that matter) not to have a simple telephone was definitely going too much. This kind of love that cannot spare a few dollars for a cellular phone (and paying for such miserly conduct with death) is unimaginable. I do not think that anyone who is not mesmerised by DiCaprio could in any manner relate to any of the characters or sympathise with them; they are so artificial.
Leaving aside Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968) that was an orthodox version (and quite memorable too), one remembers with much affection The Westside Story, a musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. There the modern social elements were interwoven into the setting so that the result was a recreation of the spirit of the original Romeo and Juliet. I believe even Shakespeare would not have found fault with that.
The only remarkable aspect of this Romeo+Juliet was music. However, a bad concept has never been resurrected by good music.
I only hope that the director would stop desecrating milestones of the past.