Letters to Juliet too predictable

The much awaited romance film ‘Letters to Juliet’ starring Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, and Christopher Egan failed to live up to other romantic films like The Notebook and Dear John. Predictability and coincidence were common themes throughout the movie.

 

The film begins by introducing the audience to Sophie, a fact-checker working for a publishing company in New York City, who is an aspiring writer. Engaged, she and her fiance are about to go on a pre-wedding honeymoon to Verona, Italy, the city of romance. The film quickly makes the point that her fiance’s true love is cooking, which is why a new Italian restaurant is in the works. As they arrive in the city where Juliet met Romeo, it soon becomes clear that Sophie is not enjoying her fiances wine tasting adventures. She decides, that while he visits a wine auction miles away,she will tour the city.

 

She soon finds a wall where heartbroken women write letters to Juliet Capulet and tape them to the stone. While Sophie begins to write a letter herself, she notices a woman collecting the notes into a basket, and follows her. She eventually finds that the woman, as well as three others, answer the letters, and she decides to help.

 

The real story begins when Sophie finds a letter 50 years old hidden in a crevice in the wall and decides to write back. Less than a week later, the woman who wrote the letter, Claire, and her grandson arrive in the city, to search for her long lost lover. Although her impolite son disapproves at first, he agrees when Sophie asks to join them on the journey to find her lost lover.

 

Slowly but surely Joshua, the son, begins to show his more sensitive, charming side, and although she doesn’t show it at first, Sophie begins to fall for him. Egan shows his gradual change in character fairly well, but the great  chemistry between the two were only another sign that they would end up together in the end.

 

When the threesome do finally find Claire’s soul mate, it is a bittersweet time. Sophie has to say goodbye to the man she’s grown so close to and get back to her fiance, who has returned to Verona. She soon realizes that her fiance is not the right man for her, but keeps it a secret until two months later, when they’ve returned home to  the U.S. After calling off the wedding, Sophie must find a way to tell Joshua how she really feels for him, though it won’t be without a couple roadblocks.

 

Although the acting in the film could not be beat, it did not have the storyline to match. With only a couple of laughs throughout the movie, it proved to be sweet but more generic and predictable than entertaining. It definitely did not live up to it’s counterparts, and one could go without seeing it, for it will disappoint many.