"Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love." This is one nice quote from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, which I probably wouldn't know if it wasn't for the movie Letters to Juliet.
The movie was inspired by the book with the same title by sisters Lise Friedman and Ceil Friedman. Sophie Hall (Amanda Seyfried) is a woman who is aspiring to be a writer but is still working as a fact checker for The New Yorker. Sophie goes to Verona, Italy with his fiance Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal) for a pre-honeymoon. As they arrived in Verona, Victor started to become busy meeting different people to talk with, all in relation to the restaurant he is planning to open soon. Sophie, being a very considerate girlfriend, just lets Victor do what he wants to do, therefore, Sophie is left with a lot of time to see more of Verona on her own. She saw a place where people write letters to Juliet (the heroin in one of Shakespeare's works), she saw a woman getting all these letters and follow her. She learned that four women is writing to all these letters back to respond to the feelings of those who wrote with all their hearts. One day, Sophie decided to help these women who are writing back. While she is getting the letters on the wall with the woman assigned to get them, she found a letter when a brick fell, turns out the letter was written 50 years ago. Stated in the letter is the story of a teenage girl who was supposed to runaway with a teenage boy she fell in love with, because her parents would not approve of them. The teenage girl didn't go to the place where they were supposed to meet because she felt afraid. Sophie replied to the letter, hoping that the one who wrote it will still be able to read it even after 50 years had passed. The next day, a man named Charlie (Chris Egan) came looking for her. Charlie is the grandson of the woman who wrote the letter 50 years ago. Charlie didn't like the idea that Sophie suggested to his grandmother to go search for the guy, Charlie confronted Sophie. Sophie followed Charlie as he said that he came with his grandmother. Sophie met Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), and learned that she is planning to search for Lorenzo, the guy Claire failed to go with when she was a teenager. Claire told Sophie that she want to say sorry to Lorenzo for not coming. Sophie decided to come with Claire and Charlie as they go search for Lorenzo Bartolini. While Victor is still busy with his research on foods and cooking, Sophie spend her days in Verona with Claire and Charlie as they look for Lorenzo. As their search for Lorenzo goes on, Sophie and Charlie will start to understand, be comfortable, and fall in love with each other.
To be honest, I watched this without even knowing the plot or who the members of the cast are, and I had no idea who will be the characters I'll be seeing throughout the movie. Yes, I don't even know the plot or the characters. But when the character Charlie first appeared in the film, it somehow became a predictable story of a new found love. I literally said "Ahh, Sophie's going to fall in love with this one." I actually think there are lots of predictable story plots out there, but it still depends on the person if she wants to enjoy or just think negative about the movie all throughout. I wouldn't bother on that anymore, being a sucker for love stories that I am, I can pretty much accept any ending as long as it gives me a good feeling or I am touched in the end, and this one made me feel good. It is a charming watch, not too cheesy. doesn't have lots of touching between the lead characters, but there are very sweet scenes you can look forward to. I just love the love-hate relationship going on between Sophie and Charlie at first.
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| One of the sweetest scenes to look forward to :) |
I'm not an actress of some sort, but I think Amanda Seyfried, Chris Egan, Vanessa Redgrave, and the rest of the cast including extras were able to give justice to the roles they were given. I like Amanda Seyfried's facial expressions as Sophie. (And how can she be so pretty?) Chris Egan is not exactly my type of guy but as the movie goes on I started to take a liking on him. So why am I even stating this here? It's because I think he portrayed the character Charlie so well that at the end of the film, I started to think he's adorable, because Charlie is adorable. Charlie is a guy who seems to be grumpy and a little distant, but turns out he's a very protective and caring person. Egan was able to show both the cranky Charlie and the caring Charlie well. Vanessa Redgrave's facial expressions as Claire made me want to help searching for Lorenzo too. I was like "Let her find him already!" The extras (those other Lorenzo Bartolinis) are very effective as well, they are funny, have different characters, though same names.
I think it's safe to say that Letters to Juliet is a good watch if you want to forget the harsh reality of life for awhile. Go wander in Verona!
*Pictures not mine, unless stated otherwise. Credits for the pictures goes to the rightful owners.
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