I Watch Films: Juliet & Romeo

 

Juliet & Romeo (2024)

In Verona, two families, the Montagues and the Capulets are feuding. This is given a certain amount of historical context as one family supports the Pope, the other the Emperor, reflecting the conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in medieval Italy. Juliet Capulet, daughter of Lord Capulet, returns to Verona from studying abroad. In an effort to keep the conflict under control the Prince of Verona arranges for a (non-lethal?) fight between champions of the families. Romeo of the Monatagues ducks out fighting Tybalt Capulet (Juliet’s cousin), admiring this new woman. The fight turns into a brawl, Romeo and Juliet like each other but are then distressed to discover they are on opposite sides of the feud – but not enough to cut off contact.

Meanwhile The Friar (Derek Jacobi) offers advice and spiritual comfort. He’s also learning from an Apothecary, who explains the details of several extraordinary potions. Lord Capulet is trying to get Juliet to marry Lord Paris, which will gain a final advantage over the Montagues, and holds a masked ball. Romeo sneaks in to see Juliet…

Do you know the story of Romeo And Juliet? Well what if it was put into a gritty historical context and some of the out-of-left-field magic potions were given an origin story? And suppose we cut out almost all the blank verse and replaced it with the modern dialogue we might find in a musical. Oh, and yes, what if it were a musical too?

The problem with the last is that it didn’t have any good songs! They’re fine, but blandly indistinguishable, even as a fairly good-looking dance sequence goes on. And if the songs don’t work in a musical there’s not a lot to fall back on. What do we fall back on? Two kids in brightly coloured undistinguished love, dark murder, weird magic and a lot of people standing around failing to offer any gravitas as serious political events unfurl. Fails to be a good musical, fails to be a historical film, fails to be an adaption of a classic play.

Watch This: Modern musical of period romance with some good dances and stunts
Don’t Watch This: Watch literally any other adaption of Romeo And Juliet