Better than expected

Rating: 7/10 (22 July 2006)

Despite the casting of Daines and DeCaprio in the lead roles in this movie, this is not a bad film. Enjoy the performances of the rest of the cast, particularly Pete Postlethwaite and Paul Sorvino.
For a fan of Shakespeare, it's interesting to note the way the characters and their voices seamlessly blend into the modern world. The roaming youths of both houses are easily believable as gang bangers, and noble lords easily become wealthy tycoons. The changes in the ages at which we consider marriage does create some dissonance, but so do a number of Shakespeare's plot devices in the modern world. All in all, enjoy the story, and the shiny, and the fluid way that the actors convey the meaning of the archaic dialect.