Rapid Review: Romeo + Juliet (1996)

“Did my heart love ’til now? Forswear its sight. For I never saw true beauty ’til this night.”
– Romeo

SYNOPSIS: Classic story of Romeo and Juliet, set in a modern-day city of Verona Beach. The Montagues and Capulets are two feuding families, whose children meet and fall in love. They have to hide their love from the world because they know that their parents will not allow them to be together. There are obstacles on the way, like Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, and Romeo’s friend Mercutio, and many fights. But although it is set in modern times, it is still the same timeless story of the “star crossed lovers”. – via IMDB

Gah! Can we just take a moment to truly appreciate DiCaprio’s beauty…

And then again in black and white because it stays so absolutely delicious:

Just adding this one, too! 

Some more…

And because I certainly cannot resist one last one…

DiCaprio. Need I say more? I suppose you might want some more, so I will give it to you. Romeo+Juliet is such a Baz Luhrmann experience, no two ways about it. It is extravagant, flamboyant, in-your-face and fabulous. I loved this movie when I was growing up, I thought it was a really great modernization of the play, which I enjoyed. Plus there was young, dreamy DiCaprio. We can’t even deny that. And to see a young Claire Danes, pre-cuckoo crazy Carrie Mathison is just wonderful. I think that Luhrmann did a good job bringing this forth in a new way. It was innovative, and to keep the dialogue as it was in the play is disconcerting and refreshing all at once. Grief, but these two kids were melodramatic as hell, I won’t even attempt to deny that. It is one heck of a disturbing and unhealthy relationship, and nobody can tell me otherwise about that. I am not even going to get into all the insanity of this relationship – true love, just sex, respect, what? – because I am sure we have all covered it in school a million times. The camera work was really snappy in the movie, and the way it would flow and then sometimes race and be all edgy was something that worked very well. I think the whole cast gave solid performances and it was great to see Paul Rudd, even though his role was minor. He’s such a sweetie! The costumes were something else in here, outrageous, loud, perfectly suited for the whole affair. I had a few good laughs throughout, and this movie, while not perfect, is definitely something worth spending time on and checking out – though some might need to keep a more open mind in terms of the modernization.