Letters to Juliet Review

Sophie is a fact checker for a The New Yorker. She is taking a vacation trip to Italy with her fiancé Victor before their wedding. But it turns out to be mostly a business trip as Victor is busy meeting with suppliers for the new restaurant that he’s opening and Sophie is pretty much left to her own devices. She discovers this courtyard in Verona where people write love letters to Juliet, Shakespeare’s ill-fated heroine asking for advice and putting them on the wall. Curious she finds that the letters are collected by the “secretaries of Juliet” who answer them. Sophie helps out by writing one letter that got lost some 50 years ago between the bricks.

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) has aspirations of being a journalist and knows a good story when she sees it. So when Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) shows up in Italy spurred by encouragement in Sophie’s letter to look for her lost love, she asks if she could come along on the search. Claire’s grandson Charlies (Christopher Egan) does not like the idea of his grandmother wasting her time on what could be a futile mission. Sophie’s fiancé (Gael Carcia Bernal) is happy that she’s keeping busy so he can pursue his vendors. She puts her fact checking sleuthing talent to work looking for the every male with the name of Lorenzo Bartolini (Franco Nero still looking good after all these years). The trip covers a radius area where they think he lives based on Claire’s memory of when they first fell in love. Claire at the time was supposed to meet up with him one night and they planned to marry in the 60’s. She had gotten cold feet and went back to England. Claire always wondered what turn her life would have taken if she had shown up that night instead of running away.

Gary Winick with writers Jose Rivera and Tim Sullivan have created a light hearted romance that doesn’t rely on slapstick situations or characters doing stupid things to propel the storyline. It probably helps having the classy elegant Vanessa Redgrave elevating the material. She has good chemistry with Seyfried whose Sophie learns a lesson on love from the older more experienced role model. It was harder to believe Charlie as the fussy grandson and why Sophie would choose him over her livelier boyfriend even though he’s a workaholic about his restaurant. No spoiler here, you know for the trailer this is how it’s going to end. Life if beautiful, the Italian countryside, the attractive cast, it’s the perfect postcard movie. Don’t think about how a lowly magazine fact checker can afford the hotels and meals on her side trip with Claire and Charlie. Did they pick up the tab? I don’t know what the protocol is when one invites oneself on a quest. Ignore the plot holes. This is a good date movie, you don’t have to think about it too hard and get on with your life.
(Review by Reesa)