# Romeo + Juliet (1996)

### reviewed by
Jerry Saravia

Guns, warring gangs, lavish parties, blue crucifixes, a black transvestite, an MTV soundtrack and, oh yes, a love story. What is this, a Godard film? A remake of "West Side Story"? No, it's "William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet." What? Yes, it's a modern-day variation of the Bard amidst Verona Beach, actually Mexico City.

Leonardo DiCaprio is the brooding Romeo. Claire Danes is the weeping Juliet. Harold Perrineau, Jr. is Mercutio. The over-the-top Paul Sorvino is Juliet's father of the Capulet family. Romeo is from the Montague family, and he desperately falls in love with Juliet when he sees her through a fish tank. They play around in pools and in big beds, but there's not much in the way of romance. Silly? Most definitely.

"Romeo and Juliet" wants to be an MTV version of the oft-told Bard tale albeit with dazzling visuals and milisecond cuts - it's "Natural Born Killers" crossed with "West Side Story." The problem is that all the poetry of the Bard's text is lost in the translation to a modern-day setting. The soundtrack pumps out more songs per minute than I could stand and practically drowns out all the dialogue. DiCaprio emotes but doesn't exactly do more than that. Claire Danes giggles for an eternity - she's like a loving puppy with big startling eyes, but is miles away from her strong work in "Little Women." Everyone else overacts to the hilt, including the annoying Paul Sorvino, the high-pitched Miriam Margoyles as the Latina housekeeper, and the endless stares supplied by Diane Venora ("Heat"). The best performance, in terms of appropriate tone and inflection, is Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father) as Friar Lawrence.

The biggest mistake was in making "Romeo and Juliet" an MTV cartoon with the original, antiquated text making the whole film as incongruous and anachronistic as you might expect. Stick with the Franco Zeffirelli version instead.

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E-mail me with any questions, concerns or general complaints at faustus_08520@yahoo.com or at Faust667@aol.com

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