Romeo + Juliet review

Rated 12. This adaptation of the world's greatest love story is set in mordern times in a fictional town. It is very inventive, but also it is without the heart or the heartbreak of the its source matireal, relying on extreme and ugly takes on important scenes.

Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes do their best. The film has things like the families being rival buisnsses and the prince being the chief of police and the balcony scene taking place in a pool. Very inventive, interesting take on the heartbreaking love story! The acting is OK, with good use of Shakespeare's dialouge.

But what is 'thou', 'thee', or 'doth' doing in mordern times? The dialouge seems very out of place! There are definetly disadvantages to the film being set in mordern times. The play is a touching and poignant spectacle, not an ugly city drama! Guns instead of swords, car chases instead of chases on foot... you get the idea. Just like the recent Gulivers Travels film, this fails to do its source matirial justice. I don't know how this managed to get 69% on rotten tomatoes.

Also I would like to point out something else. The movie violent and bloody. The fight between Tybalt, Romeo and Mecrutio is made very bloody. But what I highlight most is the scene where Juliet's father gets cross with her for not wanting to marry Count Paris. Instead of him just being cross he starts hitting everyone. Thecharacter of ord capullet is made very unpleasant in this film. Because it contain violence, gore and sex, it's not exactly something you could show to a primary school class who are studying Shakespeare, can you?

This movie is unpleasant, distastefully mordern and ugly with a capital U. If Shakespeare was alive today, something tells me he wouldn't be too pleased with this! 1.5 stars out of 5.