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It’s lover and Juliet: The Rick Steves Edition. relish the castles, frescoes, and balcony-fronted gardens of previous Verona, Mantua, and Rome! excogitate however Renaissance princes unbroken their codpieces in place! You won’t learn the way best to sink-wash your light-weight travel tunic, however it will boast a moderately catchy foreground tale.
You may have already detected the story of star-crossed lovers from rival clans via one Shakespeare, however abundant of the previous guy’s language has been surgically removed for this tween-aimed take, heavier on brocade, HD skylines, and television music than on poetry and feeling. This isn’t the primary decide to bathe R & J, nor even the primary by associate Italian director operating in English with lesser-known, nearly age-appropriate actors. The 1968 potentate Zeffirelli version created a tastily sexy stir with Argentina-born beauty Olivia Hussey and forgettable author Whiting. There’s less magic here, with hack Carlo Carlei (remember Matthew Modine reincarnated as a dog in Fluke?) utilizing a script by Downton Abbey creator solon Fellowes. Key speeches square measure maintained, however the dialogue is generally Classics Illustrated boilerplate. Still, it's alittle jarring once Juliet’s maid (Mike Leigh regular Lesley Manville) praises the childlike mistress for her “good style in men”.
As commanding as spunky Hailee Steinfeld was within the Coen brothers’ True Grit, she’s not precisely dripping with personal magnetism because the young girl of adult male. and Mrs. Capulet (a astonishingly buffoonish Damian Lewis, aboard stern Natascha McElhone). along with her voiceless British-isms and wide-eyed stare, Steinfeld (only fifteen at shooting time) comes across like your buddy’s sensible child sister, not a old master maiden capable of triggering instant wedding proposals, not to mention bloody weapon system fights and antic poison-swallowing. (Paul Giamatti plays the notably drug-savvy religious Laurence, and dysfunction Westwick is unforgettable as Juliet’s nostril-flaring, duel-happy relation Tybalt.)
As lover Montague, Stephen Arnold Douglas Booth (now 21) isn't any nice shakes, either. He’s androgynously lovely, however, therefore i used to be genuinely shocked once he didn’t sprout fangs and begin badmouthing werewolves. Then I remembered that this was PBS, not HBO.
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