Romeo + Juliet

Year of release : 1996

Run time : 2h

Genre : Romance / Crime

Cast : Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, Paul Rudd, John Leguizamo

The movie is a modern retelling of the William Shakespeare tragedy of the same name.

The movie was co-written, produced and directed by Baz Luhrmann.

The action is set in Verona Beach, where 2 households and business empires, the Capulets and the Montagues abide.

The movie opens with a narration about the star crossed lovers taking their lives in “fair Verona”. It then goes to 3 Montague boys who stop for gas at the same gas station some of the Capulet boys do, and they end up fighting, blowing up the place!

The chief of police arrests the ones leading the 2 boy gangs, Benvolio Montague and Tybalt Capulet, and scolds their families (the heads of their families) saying that they’ve been disturbing the peace for too long, and if they do it again, they’ll pay with their lives (or at least that’s what I understood).

Romeo Montague is sad due to Rosaline, a girl he is in love with.

The Capulet family is about to hold a ball, and Juliet’s father is talking to Paris (the governor’s son) who wants to marry her, but her father says he should wait to ask for her hand in marriage for 2 more years for she’s too young.

Hearing Rosaline will be at the ball, Romeo is convinced by his friends who want to crash the party, to attend.

Mercutio, who has tickets to the ball, gives Romeo an ecstasy pill, and once they arrive to the masked ball, Romeo has a bad reaction to the pill, going to the bathroom.

There, on the other side of the aquarium which separates the men and women bathrooms, he sees Juliet, and falls in love with her at first sight.

The feeling is mutual, and they meet leaving the bathroom.

Seeing Romeo and his friends, Tybalt wants to start another fight, but his uncle, Juliet’s father, who holds the ball, warns him that if he destroys his party he’ll have to deal with him, so he stops.

Paris is trying to woo Juliet as he dances with her, but she keeps on looking after Romeo.

Romeo and Juliet get to talk, with Romeo professing his love, and when she leaves for her mother and nurse are looking for her, she realizes he’s a Montague, her family’s declared enemy.

That’s also the moment Romeo realizes the same thing.

Romeo and his friends leave the party, as Tybalt’s posse is after them, but Romeo goes back to see Juliet.

Juliet asks him if he really loves her or plays with her, being a Montague. Romeo asks her to marry him.

The next day, Romeo goes to the priest who agrees to marry them in secret that very day.

The priest agrees thinking their love will make their houses forget their spite and be friends.

The two get married, and right after, her father decides she’s ready to marry Paris, not knowing she’s already married to Romeo.

Juliet refuses to marry Paris and her father says he’ll throw her in the street if she doesn’t.

At the same time, Tybalt once again, always ready for fights, starts another fight with the Montagues, k1lling Mercutio in the process, as he tried to save Romeo.

Mercutio curses both houses, as he is dying.

Romeo goes after Tybalt, to avenge Mercutio’s death. And k1lls Tybalt. He is now exiled from Verona.

Juliet doesn’t know what to do, so she goes to the priest, who gives her a potion which, he says, will make her appear dead for a while, time in which her family will come to their senses about her marrying a man she doesn’t want.

The priest sends a letter to Romeo about it, but he doesn’t get it.

I personally didn’t like the movie. It might be the Romeo and Juliet story as I never liked it.

The story is set in modern times, it even has visual effects with the characters being put on fast forward, I’m guessing for comedy purposes (I didn’t find anything funny about it), but they kept the old English Shakespeare wrote into, and I could barely understand what they were saying.

It seemed the Capulets were always the ones with more rage and anger, always starting the fight and ending it in blood.

The characters even talk to themselves so others (like Juliet with Romeo) and the audience would know what they think about.

I hated it. I watched it on 2 separated days, as the first time it put me to sleep!

Tybalt and Mercutio were annoying ,as they were always angry for no reason, always ready to fight with people for no reason.

Other than that, I liked how the movie looked, the colors. I hated the Montague colored shirts.

The actors were great, especially Leonardo DiCaprio.

The soundtrack was good.

The movie received positive reviews with Cinema Score audiences grading the movie an A-.

The movie was nominated for quite a few awards (including one Oscar and 7 BAFTAS), and won some, like the Silver Bear for Best Actor for DiCaprio and the Alfred Bauer prize for the director at the Berlin Film Festival, and 4 Bafta awards including for Best Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Natalie Portman was originally cast as Juliet, but she was 14 at the time, and seemed too young against Leo who was 21. Sarah Michelle Gellar turned down the role as the filming schedule conflicted with her other projects.

Christian Bale auditioned to play Mercutio.

You can watch the full movie on the Ok.Ru platform.

Rating : Could have been a contender !