Good intentions

The Verona project, part XXII

A long-suspended project revived! Two "to be fair" notes: (1) seeing a Rotten Tomatoes rating in the 20s, and having disliked the majority of versions I've seen, I didn't carry much enthusiasm with me to the theater. And (2) in actual movie-theater darkness, it's lot harder to take the extensive notes I usually take; I'm not sure I can even find them all, much less decipher them. Still, I think it's fair to say that this was not very good.

Who (how old), when, how long? Douglas Booth (19) and Hailee Steinfeld (15, and yes, you have heard that name before), 2013, 2 hours.

What sort of R&J? A pair more pure than passionate, as if both know what is going to have to be done on the wedding night, but they're more comfortable making goo-goo eyes at each other. Booth is adequate to the part (which casts Romeo as a sculptor, incidentally), but Steinfeld, whom I loved in True Grit, delivers at least 75% of her lines in a wooden high-school-kid-reading-Shakespeare-in-English-class galumph.   

Seriocomic scale for first scene? scale of 1 (silly) to 10 (ominous).The film starts getting odd in the opening scene, as we begin with the prologue as writ, but then suddenly are told that the Prince has ordered a joust for Montagues and Capulets to slake their violent tendencies. And so we have Mercutio winning the ring (I dunno: check the jousting rulebook) at Tybalt's expense. So you think that ultraserious opening is in lieu of I.i, but no: later, after meeting both R & J, we get that scene, which clocks in at a full 10, with no dialogue for servants.

"Wherefore": do the film/playmakers know what it means? It's impossible to say: Steinfeld certainly doesn't give any hint of understanding that word, but then "art" and "thou" seem to be just as mysterious to her.   

Carrion flies? Yes! Boy, was I surprised!    

Body count? Five, Lady Montague being spared to look on while hubby shakes hands w/ Capulet.

What (else) is missing? Way too much of WS's language, much of it replaced by silly non-Shakespearean stuff like below.

What (else) is changed? Relative to how many lines are cut overall, some small parts played by good actors are boosted: the Capulets (Damian Lewis [right: Brody on Homeland] and Natascha McElhone), Friar Laurence (Paul Giamatti), and Nurse (Lesley Manville), who here is mostly an eager coconspirator. And because Balthasar is cut altogether, Bevolio has to make the trip to Mantua to take Romeo the bad news about Juliet.

What (else) is odd?

• Benvolio mentioning the possibility of moving in on Rosaline (a speaking part here) now that Hamlet has found his true love; that's the last we hear about it (or her).
• The scene in which Tybalt scolds Juliet for consorting w/ R at the ball.
• The slo-mo sequences: first look at Juliet, Tybalt charging toward the Montagues en route to killing and being killed, . . . hmmm, one other . . . R&J to the altar, maybe? Can't remember.
• Dying Mercutio telling R, re his well-intentioned intervention, that--I am not making this up!--"best intentions pave the way to hell."
• Oh! Almost forgot: after R takes his poison, J awakes, and they vigorously suck face before R dies--which makes nonsensical J's later speculation about whether enough poison remains on R's lips to do her. Then again, she's upset and probably not thinking straight.

On the other hand one unusual element is pretty cool: the film was shot in part in Verona and in Mantua.

End-of-the-play exposition? Not much, but what a weird scene, the Pollyanna Prince saying, "Yet we can take a lesson from their deaths," and Friar Laurence issuing a sort of no-fault declaration that "Their own forbidden love did murder them." Yeesh!  

Trailer

• Pompeii--Man, would I love to see a good film on A.D. 79, but this doesn't look like it.