MOVIE - Letters to Juliet

A sweet, feel good, predictable love story
Released 5-14-10
PG
5-15-10 at El Con, by myself, on its opening weekend
RT: 44% cag: 76%
Director: Gary Winick

Vanessa Redgrave, Amanda Seyfried

I've never been a big Vanessa Redgrave fan. Perhaps it's because I've never seen her in many movies, but she is one classy actress. And the young protagonist, Amanda Seyfried, was smiley and sweet and bubbly and and cute-as-a-button and a dreamer. So yes, this was a soapy, sappy movie, but the kind you need once in awhile to feel good, to enjoy the scenery, and to know exactly what's going to happen all the way through. You leave the theater with a little smile on your face.

The opening credits are pretty cool. We see painting after painting of couples kissing. Tender, sweet lovers. I totally enjoyed the art show.

Sophie and her fiance, Victor, leave for a "pre-honeymoon" to Verona, Italy. He is a chef, about to open a fancy Italian restaurant in Manhattan, she is a researcher for New Yorker magazine, and a wannabe writer. When they get to this incredibly romantic place, he spends all his time on the phone, then spending days on the road to attend a wine auction here, get a cooking lesson there, and tour a cheese-making venue somewhere else. So Sopie is on her own.

She unwittingly meets a group of volunteer women who answer lovelorn letters that are left daily on the wall under Juliet's (of Romeo and Juliet fame) balcony. She unloosens a brick and finds a 50 year old letter written my Englishwoman, Claire, (Redgrave) telling how she abandoned the love-of-her-life because of nerves. This is all in the previews, so I'm giving nothing away. Well, the expected happens....after Claire writes back (as Juliet), Claire and her cutesy grandson come to Verona immediately to try to find the 50-years-lost Lorenzo Bartellini. Charles is totally agains it, and the relationship he has with Sophie at first is extremely strained. Yadeeyadeeya.

The scenery is beautiful. Italy - Tuscany - is gorgeous. The streets are pristine, everyone is nice to each other, there's no traffic anywhere, but the ending is one of those stupid ones that I hate. It celebrates older people loving each other, holding hands, still having passion. And this is a very cool thing. (Made me a little sad and jealous, as usual, but I'm getting used to it.)