Words: Ash Pritchard

On paper, Letters to Juliet is an exciting prospect. Doe-eyed young starlet leading a stellar cast, check. Eye candy galore with hot up-and-coming young male leads, check. Grand old dame of cinema, check. Visually stunning location, check and check. One mild note of concern is sounded by the fact that the director, Gary Winick, was responsible for inflicting Bride Wars on the world. However, that was just one feature, so let’s keep an open mind. After all, the tagline to the movie is: “What if you had a second chance to find true love?”

The gorgeous Amanda Seyfried, who you may recognize as the girl from Momma Mia, plays Sophie, an earnest fact-checker at New Yorker Magazine who dreams of becoming a real writer. She is whisked away from the Big Apple to the tranquil beauty of Northern Italyby her fiancé Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal). Her romantic pre-marriage holiday fast becomes an excuse for her food-loving boyfriend to investigate local cuisine for his soon to open New York restaurant. Bored of the endless tastings of local delicacies, Sophie soon takes to wandering the streets of Verona.

While exploring the city’s cobbled streets (Verona of course being the location of Shakespeare’s most famous work) Sophie discovers the custom of Juliet’s courtyard. Since the 1930s, women have been writing letters to Juliet and affixing them to the courtyard’s walls. A team of volunteers reply to these letters, offering advice to those in need. Sophie begins helping these volunteers, and discovers a 50 year old letter from a girl who had left her first love in Italy to return to England. She replies, and is shocked when days later the writer of this letter played by Vanessa Redgrave arrives in Italy with her handsome British grandson.

In fact, the sexagenarian has returned to find her long lost lover from 50 years before. All she has is his name, Lorenzo Bartolini, and a belief in the power of love. Her grandson, played by Christopher Egan, offers a more skeptical view, seeing his grandmother’s jaunt as a fool’s errand and chiding Sophie for encouraging it. Nonetheless the three set out on a road trip across Tuscany to track down the elusive Lorenzo. Will the grandmother find her teenage lover, and what will Sophie discover about true love along the way?

All the elements are in place for a whimsical and entertaining comedy with a soft gooey centre. The stellar cast should be well able to deliver; the backdrop of a Tuscan summer is spectacular. Sadly, Letters to Juliet fails to achieve amything near its full potential. The aging Redgrave stands out, as one would expect, dominating her scenes as a playful yet poignantly fragile old lady. Seyfried does her nice and pretty girl act to perfection, it’s hard not to be charmed by her doe-in-the-headlights gaze. The local Italian actors also perform commendably. Unfortunately, the script is lackluster at best, and the director seems unable decide if he is producing a dramatic love story or a light-hearted romantic comedy.

All things considered, the viewing experience a sleepy one. The central comedic tension should come from the banter and attraction between the Sophie and Egan’s uptight brit. However, his dreadful accent and the terrible lines he is given means their verbal jousting is limp at best. As the movie strolls towards its predictable conclusion, its 101 minute play length seems to run much longer. Even the sweeping shots of the beautiful Tuscan countryside become laboured, and the film begins to feel like a prolonged olive oil commercial. Letter’s to Juliet is being touted as a “date night” film. My advice: give the tickets to your grandparents, and find something with a little more energy.