Letters To Juliet Movie Review (2010)
A romantic comedy about a young woman who works to reunite an older woman with her long-lost love while traveling through Italy, Letters To Juliet is a sweet and predictable film that gets better the longer you watch.
I have seen the cover of this movie a few times over the last 16 years, and to be completely honest, I thought I’d seen it. I thought it was one of those films that fell into the realm of How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and The Proposal, but the last time it scrolled across my streaming platform, I took a real look at the description and had no memory of it. So here we go.
Letters To Juliet is about Sophie, a fact-checker and aspiring writer, who is engaged to Victor. Victor spends all of his time working on elements to open his new restaurant, so while away on what was supposed to be a romantic trip to Italy, Sophie wanders alone to Verona to see Juliet’s House. There, she discovers many emotional women writing letters for advice from Juliet, meets the women who answer those letters in Juliet’s name, and discovers an old letter that was never answered. She writes back to Claire 50 years after the letter had been written, and Claire, her grandson Charlie, and Sophie begin to look for Claire’s lost love.
This is an innocent romantic film that borders on saccharine and feels contrived. That was my exact take on the first half of the movie. Sophie happens to be the one person to bump an old brick at Juliet’s House to reveal a letter that’s been waiting for half a century? Don’t dozens of women post their letters and have them collected every single day by that same brick? Plus, Sophie is engaged to a man who is so obsessed with his restaurant, so when she meets Claire’s handsome grandson, you believe you know exactly what’s going to happen.
Once the trio begins looking for Claire’s lost love, though, the movie takes a more engaging turn. There are dozens of Lorenzo Bartolinis in Italy, and Claire needs to see their eyes to know if it’s the right one. You also learn a bit about both Sophie’s and Charlie’s childhood traumas, which adds a small layer of depth.
Amanda Seyfried and Vanessa Redgrave have lovely, sincere chemistry as Sophie and Claire. The one scene that moved me emotionally was between the two of them. Unfortunately, Gael García Bernal’s talent gets wasted as Victor.
Other than the beautiful Italian landscapes, there isn’t much I can say about this movie, so I’m going to fangirl for a minute. I was raised on the movie Camelot, and Vanessa Redgrave has always had a special place in my heart because she was the Guinevere of my childhood. As I’m watching this movie, a man who looks to be about 70 rides in on a horse. Immediately, I think, that’s Lancelot… So, Google being my friend, it IS Franco Nero who played Lancelot, AND THEY ARE MARRIED!! That’s so fun!! I am probably the last person to know about their on-again, off-again love story, but for that reason (and probably only that reason), I will remember this movie.
Letters To Juliet is a harmless film that has a better second half than the first. It makes great use of Taylor Swift’s song “Love Story” and has a magical film reunion between two real-life stars. It’s an easy watch.
Runtime: 105 minutes
Motion Picture Rating: PG
Languages Spoken In The Film: English, Italian, and Spanish with English subtitles
Should You Watch It? Yes
Did I Cry? Nope
My Rating: 2.75/5 Stars
Available: Free on Netflix, to rent on Prime Video, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms
