As the audience, we observe omniscient narration through dialog between characters in different scenes. After Romeo was banished, we watch him play his own form of baseball at his trailer outside of town while Juliet concocts a plan with the priest back in Verona. In this specific narrative, it appears that the only narrator is the camera. While the script has stayed true to Shakespeare's original and familiar composition, director Baz Luhrmann and co-screenwriter Craig Pearce adapted a contemporary setting and style for the 1996 film, incorporating important cinematic techniques that could not be embodied on stage back in the late 1500s. Skip it.In this modern take on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, two star crossed lovers are forced to hide their affection from the inevitable wrath of their feuding families, only to meet an unfortunately tragic end.

To be sure, director Baz Luhrmann has a unique visual style, and DiCaprio and Danes have both gone to solidify themselves as more-than-competent actors, but this outing is anything but competent for all involved. Other qualities of the film are given the half-hearted effort, from the acting (too much shouting, not enough emotional resonance) to the photography (can someone put the damn camera on a tripod so we can see what's going on?) to the editing (it feels like a wannabe 'edgy' rock/punk music video), everything hoes awry. For example, the choice to transplant the action to present day 'Verona Beach' but keep the Shakespearean language intact is a frustrating one - in my opinion, if you're doing a complete update from the ground up, have the balls to update the script in modern prose so there isn't such a disconnect. Unfortunately, bad decisions are abound from the start. I won't bother going over the finer plots points, since most of us have had to read it at some point in high school I'd rather focus on the film as its own entity. What do you get when you take a 4000-year-old play, which is divisive in its own right, and make a flaccid update for the MTV generation? You get 'Romeo + Juliet', an embarrassing misfire from a talented cast and crew. Rating: PG-13 (Some Sensuality|Contemporary Violence)ĭolby SR, DTS, Dolby Stereo, Surround, Dolby A, Dolby Digital Romeo attends the masked ball and he and Juliet fall in love. Her father Fulgencio Capulet (Paul Sorvino) has arranged her marriage to the boorish Paris (Paul Rudd) as part of a strategic investment plan. Juliet (Claire Danes) is attending a costume ball thrown by her parents. In this version, the Capulets and the Montagues are two rival gangs. Baz Luhrmann helped adapt this classic Shakespearean romantic tragedy for the screen, updating the setting to a post-modern city named Verona Beach.

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