Modern Shakespeare Original

Rating: 9/10 (8 January 2012)

William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet is a film adaptation of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy of the same name. It was directed by Baz Luhrmann and it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the leading roles.The film is an abridged modernization of Shakespeare's play. While it retains the original Shakespearean dialogue, the Montagues and the Capulets are represented as warring business empires and swords are replaced by guns.Some of the names were also changed. Lord and Lady Montague and Lord and Lady Capulet were given first names as opposed to the Shakespeare original where their first names are never mentioned, Friar Lawrence became Father Lawrence, and Prince Escalus was renamed Captain Prince.Additionally, a few plot details unimportant to the grand story arc were shifted; most notably, Juliet awakens just as Romeo poisons himself and the two see each other before he dies and she commits suicide.
The movie was able to keep the integrity of Shakespeare's text.Credit goes mostly thanks to the actors speaking the very same lines of iambic pentameter as written four centuries ago.Despite a flawed start, Romeo & Juliet proves the story deserves an adjective often attached to it: timeless.The only thing about it is when the filmmakers decide to jazz it up with crazy camera angles and rapid cutting for great visual and when it updates the story for modern times with screaming and shooting, it just gets lost somehow.But still,it remains good for viewing.