William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet [1996]

Happy Valentines Day. Unless you are single. Then you can just enjoy a Saturday.

I didn't anticipate this one being as tough to write about as it ended up being. I broke format a little bit to try to get out of my own head on it. If you're wholly unfamiliar with the movie, and for some reason turning to my website for context, here's a quick summary:

This movie is an adaptation of Romeo + Juliet that transposes the setting to a mid-90s California-Italy-Australia hybrid; the dialogue is largely unchanged from the play, which would seem torturous if played wholly straight but instead, it has Baz Luhrmann at the helm; he tries to adapt it to what a then-contemporary audience would expect - goofy scenes get looney tunes sound effects and fast motion, the balcony scene gets big orchestral strings, scenes of longing are scored by Radiohead. The end result of all this is an adaptation that is not just accurate to the source material in word and tone, but accessible to an audience that primarily watches Beavis and Butthead. If you need a blow-by-blow on the plot, it's basically identical to the '68 version.

What Works

Like Rian Johnson's first film, Brick (2005), the younger characters are all extremely heightened, and it works because it's not too far off from how teenagers see themselves: DiCaprio's Romeo is the saddest boy who ever lived, pining away first for Rosalyn then for Juliet; John Leguizamo's Tybalt is the hottest of hot shit; even Jamie Kennedy's Sampson being a hapless entry-level enforcer for the house of Montague, it feels very of a kind with the recurring Simpsons gag of the cracking-voiced teenager.

The various character actors throughout — Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino, Brian Dennehy, Miriam Margolyes, Paul Rudd — all just completely nail it.

Harold Perrineau as Mercutio especially steals every scene he's in, half of which are in drag. Insane performance. He upstages Leguizamo, he upstages DiCaprio, dude completely had it in the mid 90s in a way his later work (LOST, From, other things that don't have exactly four letters nor run on audience speculation) do not.

The point of view shots/camerawork during intense emotional exchanges are inspired choices. The soundtrack? up there with Batman Forever for absolute all-timer mixes.

Stray Highlights

A blink-and-you'll miss it one: "Rosencrantzky's" in the background of the scene where Benvolio & Mercutio are showing off their gun-fu and complaining Romeo stayed out all night, among other Shakespearean transpositions.

The sheer volume of fast-food wrappers in the car rollover scene caught me saying "wow tybalt just like me for real"

Thanks to an excerpt from Miriam Margolyes's memoir...

"I liked [DiCaprio] tremendously and admired his work, but luckily I was immune from his groin charms, unlike poor Claire Danes, then only 17."

...for introducing me to the psychic-damage inducing term "groin charms".

Next Week

The Romeo and Juliet unit continues with its double-header of both West Side Story adaptations. I haven't seen the newest one yet and am looking forward to it.

• Feb 21: West Side Story (1961) and West Side Story (2021)
• Feb 28: China Girl (1987)

Thank you for reading My Year of Shakespeare. If you have any thoughts, responses, etc, please feel free to write me an email (my email address will show up on the banner if you are signed in).