Letters to Juliet is an Inspirational Love Story
The movie ‘Letters to Juliet’ starring Amanda Seyfried (pronounced Sye-Fred) as Sophie is a great love story and a huge tear jerker. In fact I dabbed my eyes several times throughout the film.
The story starts in the United States with Sophie and her finance planning to take a pre-honeymoon vacation. Sophie wants to write, although up until now she has been a fact checker for the New Yorker. Her fiance Victor (played by Gael Garcia Bernal), is in the process of opening up a restaurant in New York City, and he has planned a trip to Italy; specifically Verona, to meet his vendors.
Sophie’s Choice
Once there, the two find that their interests draw them apart. Sophie decides to tour the city on her own and discovers a public garden at the house where Juliet Capulet, of Romeo and Juliet supposedly lived. There, Sophie finds love stricken women of all ages, writing letters to their lost loved ones, and then posting them on the wall.
As a wanna-be writer, Sophie sits and begins to write about this place as she sees the tear-laden heavy-hearted girls leave, one by one. Near dusk Sophie notices a lady removing all of the letters and putting them in a basket. Sophie follows the woman and discovers that the city pays several women (secretaries) to respond back to these love forlorn ladies with letters of guidance and support.
Sophie becomes enchanted and volunteers to help. The following day she finds a 50 year-old-letter that had been stuck inside of the wall behind a rock. After taking time to forge her reply, she mails her response with the other ladies and within a few short days, the lady who had sent the original letter 50 years prior, Clair (played by Vanessa Redgrave) and her grandson Charlie, (played by Chris Egan) show up in Verona to thank Sophie for writing.
Charlie is not happy to be there and feels that if his grandmother somehow pursued her long lost love interest, it would somehow usurp the very reason for his being. We find out he had lost his parents in a car accident, his grandfather had died, and it is just now he and his grandmother.
Using Sophie’s fact checking skills from her job at the New Yorker, the three decided to go on a search for Claire’s 1st love – the one she had when she was young and beautiful, and afraid of what her parents would Say. She is still very beautiful and although she finds many “Lorenzo’s” in their trek across the region, only one of them will have the eyes she remembers.
Juliet Letters tell story the old fashioned way, with actors, scenery and emotions
Maybe I’m just not hip enough, but out of the recent movies I have been to see, this was one of the best. It had beautiful scenery, strong dialog, and an obvious plot. I wasn’t guessing what the movie was about and I guess that means something to me. In fact, I probably could have told you in the first ½ hour what was going to happen at the end, but it didn’t matter, because the story was worth telling and it was inspirational. The region was spectacular and beautiful.
The truth – I went to see Avatar and I didn’t understand the hype. After the first 15 minutes or so of that movie, I was bored out of my mind and even after watching the entire thing, I can only tell you there were some blue men and big birds – the story might have been about diversity but I think it was more about just splashing color on a screen. I didn’t “get it.”
I also went to see the Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, and as comedian Ron White from the Blue Collar Comedy would say, it “SUCKED.” I slept through part of that one.
Letter’s to Juliet – Amanda Seyfried steals the show
Truth be told, I was mesmerized by Amanda Seyfried in this film. Her striking facial features reminded me a lot of Angelina Jolie, with her high cheek bones and full lips, but as she spoke she betrayed a cherub like quality that reminded me of Drew Barrymore. I guess I saw Amanda in “Mama Mia” with Meryl Streep, and that was another movie I enjoyed in the last year or so. You should definitely get out and see this one – I think Amanda’s got the capacity to be the next Meryl Streep or Sandra Bullock, as in The Blind Side.
Vanessa Redgrave also gave a sparkling performance. The other supporting actors were good but I thought Amanda stole the show.
Sources:
Letters to Juliet Movie, 5/23/2010
Wikipedia, Letters to Juliet
