| Overall Grade: |
C |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
C- |
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| Direction: |
D+ |
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| Visuals: |
B+ |
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This was Shakespeare!?
by Gabriel (movies profile)
May 19, 2008
36
of
64 people found this review helpful
Any fan of Shakespeare will attest... this film was a mess. While the visuals were stirring and the ART direction was very nice, the acting and punked out version was very poor.
DiCaprio spat out his lines before others could get their own out and it was clear that he did NOT understand Shakespeare nor the the context of what he was reciting. Romeo: "I dreamt a dream tonight..." Mercutio: "And so did--" Romeo: "WHAT WAS YOURS!"... in an angry way that did not fit the matter. If he was not doing this, he was just screaming and yelling. Danes, while one of my favorites, was very immature for the role and put no feeling behind her words. I feel she was very miscast. She was nothing compared to Olivia Hussey's Juliet. There was NO FEELING behind either of the star crossed lovers' words-- it was akward just watching them because it seemed more of a chore for them to get their lines out than to act them emotionally. And the balcony scene... Juliet was not even on the balcony! Instead, the two were swimming in a pool while poorly pretending to express their new-found love. And why was the newscaster in place of the narrarator? I thought they could have figured out something better... another thing--while Benvolio is originally a character invented in order to maintain peace, he was the cause of trouble and another miscast.
Fitting actors who understood Shakepeare included Nurse, Friar Laurence, Romeo's Parents (for as little lines as they had), and, I guess you could say, the Capulet parents. While Mercutio wasn't bad, he took the character too far into things he really wouldn't do.
Most of the time, lines would just be yelled out and very few actors in the movie did justice and understood the lines Shakespeare was writing. If the director had concentrated more on the script than the art direction, hecould have defined what Shakespeare was saying for the actors; if he did not know, he should not have been directing the piece. The movie should only be remade by a director serious about the literature works of Shakespeare, a knowledge of his writings, and a love for this tragedy.
I did, however, like the music and the modern way they played it up, BUT it was too confusing how they went back and forth and did not stick to one pattern. Some literature may be able to undergo the stylistic changes Luhrmann made, but Romeo and Juliet is not one of them. Zefferelli's 1968 version remains a classic and the best make of this tale. |
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