Review: Letters to Juliet

Have you seen a romantic comedy before? Yeah, then no need to waste two hours of your life here. This is hardly ground-breaking. In fact, the level to which it is predictable makes this the most banal movie I’ve seen in awhile.

Wow, you’re going to continue reading this, aren’t you? You’re actually going to make me think about this movie again?

The gist is this – Sophie (a lack-luster Amanda Seyfried, more about that in a few) and her fiancé are on a pre-wedding honeymoon in Italy. Mainly because her fiancé is a jerk-off who is opening a restaurant and he’s more interested in preparing his restaurant than paying attention to his bride-to-be. (Hahaha, if you don’t see where this movie is ending up by now, then I don’t know that you deserve to watch movies.) So, Sophie ends up on her own and she ends up in Verona at the House of Juliet. Apparently lovelorn ladies come, write a letter to Juliet, and stick it in the wall. There are a group of women who answer them, as Juliet. (It’s kind of like writing a letter to Santa, only instead of a toy, you want a man to love you or whatever.) Sophie stumbles across a letter dated 50 years earlier from Claire, and she decides to answer it.

Enter Charlie (a very easy-on-the-eyes Christopher Egan), the pompous grandson of Claire (a wonderful Vanessa Redgrave). Since receiving the response to her letter, she has decided to scour the Italian countryside to find her long-lost love from when she was 15. Charlie, of course, is against it. Sophie is all for it, and since there wouldn’t be a movie without it, she decides to tag along.

This is where your predictability meter should shoot off-the-charts. Of course the girls are into it, holding out hope when Charlie wants to turn around and go home. Of course Claire loses hope at some point. Of course Sophie ends up hating her fiancé. Of course Claire ends up liking Charlie. Of course Claire ultimately finds her long-lost love. Of course.

Of course.

Of course.

Collective “awww.”

Now, that being said, I have to question why anyone casts Seyfried. She’s flat and emotionless, and lacks chemistry with just about anyone, including herself. I mean, sure, she was okay in Mamma Mia! but that could be because the awesome Meryl Streep and ABBA music detracted from her lackluster skills. I’m not sure. Sigh.

Then again, the movie’s not one that’s going to stick in your head, why should her performance?