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Blog by Don Kennedy

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Letters to Juliet

Letters to Juliet are apparently a long standing tradition almost exclusively for women Shakespeare fans visiting Verona, the mythical home of the feuding Capulets and Montagues. These letters are posted by the lovelorn beneath a balcony in the centre of town and collected daily by women on the city payroll whose job it is to write unctuous responses to the broken hearted authors. This is all news to Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) an American who only discovers this while being neglected on her pre nuptial honeymoon by her fiancé Victor (Gael García Bernal). Sophie is befriended by the ladies and lends a hand with their daily task but when she discovers a letter dated 1957 her journalist sensibilities kick in and she writes a reply that gets an immediate response. The aristocratic Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) shows up looking to reunite with the young mans she abandoned 50 years previously due to class distinction reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet. In tow is her haughty grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) who thinks his grandmother is totally foolish and the ladies of Verona completely reprehensible for turning the head of a susceptible old woman. Sophie’s skills as a fact checker for the New Yorker narrows Claire’s search down to a mere 76 men likely to be the one stood up. The three head out on a Tuscan road trip that start s with a lot of tension and ends with a lot of different tension between Sophie and Charlie who grow close but the fiancé matter stands in their way. A subdued Redgrave is her usual perfect self as the dignified heiress trying to fulfill her dream. However despite the suggested romance there isn’t much chemistry between Egan and Seyfried on screen but no matter, the pastoral Italian beauty makes up for a lot of the movies flaws.

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