Luhrmann bombards us with startling images, audacious camera tricks and breathtaking action ... [in order to recreate] the overwhelming experience of adolescent love.
Luhrmann's gleefully cinematic version of the play is so relentlessly inventive and innovative, it takes 20 minutes to get a grasp on how appropriate is his approach to the material.
Keeps the integrity of Shakespeare's text, but mostly thanks to the actors speaking the very same lines of iambic pentameter as written four centuries ago.
The hyperactive movie seems goofy and gimmicky at first, but it acquires real power when the cinematography settles down enough for Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes to do some excellent acting, helped by a superb supporting cast.
To say the very least, ROMEO + JULIET is probably more brilliant and inventive than Shakespeare is himself. Set in a modern time period, this stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Claire Danes as Juliet. Some of the aspects of this production tend to strike as humor: for example, if you look closely at Tybalt's gun
during the brawl scene set on the beach, it has the word "dagger" (the object he used in the original Shakespeare text) written across it. Other aspects attempt to throw you off, such as near the end...I won't spoil that, as it is slightly different than the ending in the William Shakespeare text. Even if this needs to be slightly unfaithful in order to be modernized, it is a great film, and it is definitely worth seeing.
No quotes approved yet for Romeo + Juliet. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'Romeo + Juliet'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Top Critic
