when i first heard that romeo & juliet had been " updated " i shuddered .
i thought that yet another of shakespeare 's classics had been destroyed .
fortunately , i was wrong .
baz luhrman has directed an " in your face " , and visually stunning piece with this film .
it revolves around the two rival families , who in this version each run multi - million dollar enterprises .
these rival companies / families are the capulet 's and the montague 's .
the younger generation of these two families have formed gangs , who despise one another .
as the storylines goes , romeo montague ( played by leonardo dicaprio ) and juliet capulet ( claire danes ) meet at a fancy dress party , and it is love at first site .
i never believed love at first site was possible until i saw this film ,
the scene in which romeo 's eyes meet juliet 's through the fish tank
is one of the most memorable .
of course , they can not publicly reveal their love , for their families are arch enemies .
so they marry in secret
, this is where things begin to go wrong .
the story , as with all good shakespeare , ends in tragedy .
the cinematography is spectacular to say the least , and the soundtrack provides the perfect atmosphere in which to " lay our scene " , as the film says .
there is very little to criticise .
the performances are convincing , and several of the film 's younger stars may find that it provides a launch for their careers .
the modernisation of the script is ingenious and clever .
despite the well known storyline , this latest version still manages to cause tears among many members of the audience ( especially the younger generation ) , and this is certainly a great credit to the film .
visually stunning piece the cinematography is spectacular the performances are convincing a great credit the perfect atmosphere ingenious and clever fortunately