Brilliance

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2007)

Romeo And Juliet has been examined and appraised for over 400 years, and I have nothing to add to all that discussion. But I do know the play is such a monument that anyone bringing it to stage or screen will either do it justice or screw it up.
So, what of Baz Luhrmann's rendition? All I can say is it's wonderful. Just, wonderful.
Like any film it has its flaws, but so what? The 'modern' look and sound will please some and annoy others (I didn't like it much); but in a hundred years nobody will care for or against that.
This film should be remembered for two scenes: the birth of the love between Romeo and Juliet, and their unhappy end. Forget all the melodrama in-between, good bad or indifferent. The only thing that counts is that both those scenes are done well enough to give the other one its meaning and emotional impact.
I can't speak for anyone else of course but, for myself, I have never seen those two scenes done so convincingly as they are in this film. I don't know or care how it was done, whether it was Shakespeare, Luhrmann, or the blinding talent of Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio. What I do know is, it was done damn near to perfection.