Fun, but not very good

Rating: 6/10 (15 December 2000)

While a much bigger-budget and more "serious" work, this isn't really nearly as good as Luhrmann's earlier _Strictly Ballroom_.
This wildly experimental movie is, overall, a dismal (albeit instructive) failure. The plot narrative arc runs parallel to _Strictly Ballroom_, beginning in a much wilder, freer, more experimental style early in the picture, shifting gradually over to a more conventional mode of storytelling about a quarter of the way in. As with the earlier picture, I wonder if the real reason for the switch is not that Luhrmann simply ran out of steam and energy for the frenetic editing.
The biggest failing is in the casting. While both exceptionally pretty, neither Danes nor diCaprio ever come to grips with the meaning in their lines -- falling victim to the most common failing when doing Shakespeare, they never manage to forget that the lines are supposed to be POETRY. Several supporting players, most notably Harold Perrineau as Mercutio and John Leguizamo as Tybalt, overcome this problem with ease. Perrineau in particular is flatly amazing, easily stealing every scene; that's not hard with material like Mercutio, but as so often happens with this play, a good Mercutio serves no end so much as to show up the weaknesses of the story in general (to wit, these are all a bunch of witless adolescents that most of us wouldn't give a thought to outside of The Theatre).
Good eye candy, and some really fine performances (although none from the principles).