Men take note – don’t ignore your woman! Aside from being a pretty adorable rom-com about the search for true love, ‘Letters to Juliet’ is also a cautionary tale of what will happen, men folk, if you do…

The film starts in NYC, where our heroine Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is flying to Verona with her fiancé and chef Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal). The holiday is a ‘pre-honeymoon’ as Victor’s restaurant will open soon after their wedding, leaving little time for the newlyweds to spend together. But Victor is a young man in the throes of an obsession. With food. Once in Italy, his desire to experience the country’s flavours rather than sightsee with Sophie drives a wedge between them.

Sophie, in the meantime, stumbles on the historic courtyard of Romeo’s lover, Juliet Capulet, and discovers that hundreds of lovestruck women leave letters there each day, asking for Juliet’s advice on their romantic predicaments. Sophie joins the quartet of Italian women who reply with letters on behalf of Juliet and, when she finds a 50-year old letter that’s been overlooked behind a brick, she replies to it. To her joy, the English grandmother who penned it, Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), soon arrives in Verona with her reluctant grandson, Charlie (Christopher Egan). 50-years on, Sophie’s letter has made Claire confront the fact she’s never forgotten her long-lost Italian lover, Lorenzo (Franco Nero). So, Claire, Charlie and Sophie embark on a search across the glorious Italian countryside to find Lorenzo.

The feel-good formula of romantic comedy is not deviated upon in ‘Letters to Juliet’. This could be yawn-inducing in other films yet here the formula cradles you as the story unfolds like a familiar old blanket. Fortunately, there’s more ‘rom’ than ‘com’ and Gary Winick’s direction summons the warmth, sincerity and romance that audiences lap up from romances set in the Mediterranean. The script, penned by Puerto Rican Jose Rivera (‘The Motorcycle Diaries’) evokes the idiosyncratic national ‘voice’ of its Italian, English and American characters – dipping playfully into the stereotypes therein. American girl Sophie gushes with “awesome!” and “oh my god!”; Charlie speaks with stiff, sardonic English affectation; and the Italian cast members ooze that no-nonsense Italian vigour and charm we love to love. The casting coup of Vanessa Redgrave as Claire pays off. Redgrave brings a gentle gravitas to the role, not to mention the services of her real-life husband, Franco Nero who plays Lorenzo.

Yet it’s Garcia Bernal’s role as Victor that moved me the most. While ‘Letters to Juliet’ explores the big ‘ol Shakespearian themes of true love and destiny – those themes get preachy fast. Yes, yes, we know: follow your heart, follow your love.  Victor, on the other hand, speaks to any woman (or man) who’s ever suffered the heartache of being besotted with a narcissist. Garcia Bernal’s combination of devastating charisma and terrifying selfishness is pitch-perfect, even if it’s relegated to a sub plot. Amanda Seyfried is at her best as Sophie, too, when she’s battling that awful confusion of mistaking her lover’s passion for life, as passion for her.

‘Letters to Juliet’ is a sweet and enjoyable film that stands a few heads above the predictable rom-com dross that washes ceaselessly in and out of cinemas each year.

National Release Date: 13 May 2010
Director: Gary Winick
Rating: PG