Genre : Romance
Rating : 4/5
Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) a fact checker who longs to write, is engaged to Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal), a chef opening his new restaurant. When they make a pre-honeymoon trip to Italy so Victor can look through wines and vineries, Sophie visits Juliet Capulet’s house where she meets Juliet’s secretaries, a bunch of women who answer each and everyone of Juliet’s letters. She decides to help them in this very romantic task and chances upon a letter from Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), a young British girl looking to reunite with her lover Lorenzo. Sophie writes back to Claire and Claire receiving a reply to her letter many, many years later makes her way to Verona with her young grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) in tow.
Sophie, having given the now elderly Claire hope, now joins Claire and Charlie in the search for Claire’s long lost love. As it happens, Sophie finds herself warming to good-natured Claire, but at loggerheads with Claire’s cynical grandson. As the animosity wears off (you know it will) and Sophie finds herself more than a little interested in Charlie, she must decide where her romantic loyalties lie.
Yes, I’ll say it : “Letters to Juliet” is sappy, soppy and all sorts of mushy. Yes, it works the ooh-I-find-my-soulmate-but-I’m-already-engaged formula to the max. And I didn’t care. It’s partly the star-cast and the chemistry they share and and partly the fact that this is a warm, sun-kissed, beautiful locale-filled film. “Letters to Juliet” worked for me. The characters are well-developed and I did care about Sophie and Charlie. The tale of Claire and Lorenzo sort of made the backdrop to the younger love story.
Seyfried essaying the role of sentimental and good-natured Sophie does so very well, her persona suiting the character perfectly. Seyfried does have the knack of portraying tremulous vulnerability so well on screen, and is very believable as unsure and insecure Sophie who having “settled” (so to speak) now finds the man of her dreams on her doorstep, a little too late. Redgrave makes a dignified Claire and Egan is well-cast as the British charmer.
This is a romantic drama that injects the required amount of warm-and-fuzzy sentimentality when you need it, and works great as film of the romantic genre. It’s well directed and has adequately developed characters. Lovers of the genre will do well to watch it.
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