“Romeo and Juliet” lacks significance

By Carly Gaspari
Staff Writer

It has always been said that the third time’s the charm. However, the third film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” directed by Carlo Carlei struggles to maintain interest.

Although “Romeo and Juliet” provides viewers with satisfying cinematography, it lacks innovation and alterations to an already overdone story.

The film is set in Verona, Italy and follows Romeo Montague (Douglas Booth) and Juliet Capulet (Hailee Steinfeld), just as the play and other films do. It focusses on the star-crossed lovers’ tragic demise, which is a result of their families’ ongoing feud.

Carlei has directed other Italian works including television shows and movies and is most well-known for the movies “The Last Legion” and “The Flight of the Innocent”.

Steinfeld (Juliet) does an excellent job of capturing the young and innocent spirit of Juliet, while Booth (Romeo) could have been replaced with any other actor around 20 years old to achieve the same result for Romeo’s pouty and high-maintenance character.

However, “Romeo and Juliet” is visually pleasing with its use of rich colors in location, and costume design that allude to a life of luxury and royalty, all of which draws viewers into the film.

The movie’s score by Abel Korzeniowski also succeeds in adding to “Romeo and Juliet’s” already dramatic and romantic mood by helping to highlight the scenes with lots of emotion.

Unfortunately, this version of “Romeo and Juliet” is very safe in that it takes no risks in changing the plot or character dynamics to create a more modernized and relatable film, while still following the same general storyline.

Familiarity of the story proves to be the main cause of discontent with this film. Because most are aware of what happens by the end of the story, it becomes difficult to keep a movie like this interesting.

Overall, “Romeo and Juliet” is not an awful movie. It is a well-made film with decent acting and visual aspects, but its positive elements do not outshine the more underwhelming ones.

“Romeo and Juliet” is rated PG-13 and is playing in theaters nationwide.