Movie Review of Letters to Juliet - Highly Recommended!

Letters to Juliet is a wonderful romantic film set in the picturesque city of Verona, Italy and surrounding cities. It centers around the central character, Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried), who is an aspiring writer for The New Yorker magazine. She decides to take a "pre-honeymoon" with her fiancé to Verona, Italy. Her fiancé, Victor (played by Gael Garcia Bernal), in turn decides to turn the trip into a series of meetings with perspective new business associates and suppliers for his new restaurant back home in New York.

As the story progresses in Italy, Victor becomes more and more involved in his business and has less and less time for Sophie. Sophie wants to sight see and enjoy Italy and as a result, decides to venture out on her own, visiting the legendary Casa di Giulietta, or Juliet's House that is rumored to actually be the house and courtyard of the famous Juliet Capulet or Giulietta Capueti. This house has been declared to be "Juliet's house" to attract tourists. There is a balcony which overlooks a tiny courtyard that has a bronze statue of Juliet. It is said that if you rub the right breast of the statue you will receive good luck in finding your true love. Also, people come from around the world to visit the courtyard and leave hand written love messages, notes, etc. asking Juliet for help with their romances. There is a group of women, known collectively as the "Juliet Club", who take down the letters and respond to them as if they were Juliet themselves, offering advice to the authors of the love letters.

Sophie is invited to join the "Juliet Club", and visits the famed wall in the courtyard and stumbles across a long hidden, 50 year old letter to Juliet. The letter was written by a young girl named "Claire" 50 years ago when she was 15 years old asking Juliet for advice about her relationship with a young boy named "Lorenzo".

Sophie writes to Claire, (played by Vanessa Redgrave) and based on this letter Claire decides to come to Verona to set out on a quest to find her long lost love Lorenzo (played by Redgrave's real-life husband Franco Nero).

Along the way, Sophie helps Claire, accompanied by Claire's handsome but gruff and disapproving grandson, Charlie (played by Christopher Egan). While on their quest they explore the beautiful country of Italy and get to know each other very well. There is plenty of romantic discourse along the way as the two young strangers get to know one another.

Once again, Amanda Seyfried does not disappoint in this wonderful film. She has time and time again proven herself as a talented and versatile actress. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to see this film a few days before its general release. I highly recommend this movie to any true romantic out there. Yes, it is fun, happy, romantic, and enjoyable - well worth the price of admission. This will definitely be an addition to my DVD collection when it comes out.

I don't want to give too much away but this is just such a great movie and another successful outing for the talented Amanda Seyfried and the seasoned, classically trained actress, Vanessa Redgrave.

How I rated Letters to Juliet:

I give the movie 4 out of 5 stars. The acting in this movie was great and very believable. I felt like I was there in Italy with Sophie and experiencing the adventure and joys along with her. The scenery was breathtakingly stunning. I can't wait to book a vacation to Italy and I will be sure to include a trip to the beautiful town of Verona, along with a visit to the Casa di Giulietta.

The MPAA rating for Letters to Juliet:

Rated PG for brief rude behavior, some language and incidental smoking.