Director: Gary Winick (13 Going on 30, Bride Wars)
Writer: Jose Rivera, Tim Sullivan
Producers: Ellen Barkin, Mark Canton, Eric Feig, Caroline Kaplan
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Gael García Bernal, Christopher Egan, Vanessa Redgrave
MPAA Rating: PG
Running time: 113 min.

(3/5)

It was clear from the trailer that Letters to Juliet wasn’t going to be high art, a timeless romance like Gone with the Wind or Atonement (review). It was a trailer that crammed the entire film into its two minute and thirty one second running time complete with stolen looks, half hidden smiles and Taylor Swift. The sort of thing designed to sweep the romantics off their feet and it must have worked because it caught my attention.

Sophie and Victor are in love and engaged. She’s a fact checker for The New Yorker. He’s a budding chef getting ready to open his first restaurant. They’ve planned a trip to Italy. For her, it’s a pre-wedding honeymoon. For him it’s a business trip (with a little fun on the side), meeting and schmoozing with suppliers. After a day together driving across the Italian countryside tasting cheese, olive oil and wine, they decide to part ways for a few days. He to work, she to see the sites. “Win win” Victor says. During an excursion to Juliet Capulet’s home, she spots a woman taking away the letters that hopeful romantics leave behind, uncovers Juliet’s secretaries, responds to a 50 year old letter and a short week later, is met by a handsome Brit who has returned to Verona with his grandmother on a wild goose chase searching for an old love – all thanks to Sophie’s letter. The rest of the film, as you may guess, is one car ride after another as Sophie accompanies Charlie (the grandson) and Claire in search of her Lorenzo.

Letters to Juliet could easily have been a disaster of unparallelled proportions. It’s a film where nothing really happens. There’s little action and even the most talented director would have a hard time building any sort of chemistry around three people in a car, three people who hardly talk and that, when they do, spew the cheesiest lines you could ever dream up. Open up a Harlequin and you’re likely to find some of this stuff in there. Then there’s the contrived story that starts to fall apart as soon as you start thinking about it; pepper in enough meaningful, half hidden looks and furrowed brows to rival Twilight (review) and you sort of get the idea. Yet, with everything going against it, Letters to Juliet manages to work.

Blame it (or more accurately, credit) the cast that takes these paper thin characters and works them not into something believable, but tolerable, too-perfect people who are so sweet you can’t help but like them. It all starts with Gael García Bernal who steals the show as the self centered Victor. Yeah, he’s an ass but a hysterically likable one (you’ve never seen Bernal like this – unless you’ve seen Rudo y Cursi). “Kings”star Christopher Egan plays the outwardly cold but inwardly romantic Charlie with charm. I’m willing to bet he’s the next big thing out of Australia and though he’s no Sam-action-superstar-Worthington, he reminds me of a young Heath Ledger in everything from his looks and mannerisms to his acting; he’s definitely one to watch. As for the ladies, Amanda Seyfried continues to bear the torch of someone who makes even the most benign film interesting while Vanessa Redgrave marks her talents with small actions. At one point she hugs Sophie, twisting her hair into a lose knot – a small, almost careless action that adds meaning to the embrace and confirms that Redgrave is as sharp now as she ever was.

In the end, it’s the combined performances that make Letters to Juliet enjoyable. It’s impossible not to smile at the sweetness and get lost in wondering “what if?” It’s a fairy tale romance complete with prince charming, white horse (ok – so it’s brown) and a happily ever after. For some this combination will prove lethal, an overload of sugar with no spice while others, myself included, will see an opportunity to escape into a girlish dream if only for a few hours.