To succeed, a romance needs to do only one thing: send us off feeling romantic.
That's harder than it sounds, as evidenced by the dozens of romances and romantic comedies that never rise above mediocrity.
But "Letters to Juliet" pulls it off. Director Gary Winick and screenwriters Jose Rivera and Tim Sullivan deal in genre cliches, sure, yet they let us view them with fresh eyes.
Vacationing in Verona, Italy, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried, who played another Sophie in "Mamma Mia!") is left to her own devices. Her work-obsessed fiance, Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal),is doing research for his new restaurant in NYC.
She visits the house where Shakespeare's heroine Juliet purportedly was wooed by Romeo. Over the years, beneath Juliet's balcony, the love-challenged have left notes seeking romantic instruction.
These missives are collected each day and answered by Juliet's "secretaries," local women who share a Dear Abby talent for dispensing advice. Sophie befriends them and discovers hidden in Juliet's wall a 50-year-old letter from a young English woman who fell for a local boy but rejected him to return to her own country.
Sophie writes back and is amazed when the woman, Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), shows up with her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan). Now a widow, Claire wants to find the boy she left so long ago. Sophie is eager to help out; she and Claire become fast friends.
Charlie, on the other hand, is a real pill, a stuffed-shirt Brit twit who questions Sophie's motives and fears this long-delayed love quest will only harm his grandmother. He and Sophie immediately irritate one another.
(Two words: Mister Darcy.)
The search takes the three to all sorts of picturesque villages where they turn up numerous dead ends and countless lecherous old Italian gents who make passes at Claire. Meanwhile Sophie is starting to question her engagement. She doesn't want to be like Claire and give up her chance for true happiness.
Of course we all know where this is going, but the sunny locales, the emphasis on food and drink, the flashes of humor and the personalities involved are quite seductive.
Seyfried, of course, is a hot property, so it's a bit of a surprise (though perhaps it shouldn't be) when the film is stolen out from under her by her 73-year-old co-star. Redgrave gives a performance of such effortless wit, compassion and soulfulness that everything around her improves. (A last-act appearance by Redgrave's real-life hubby, Italian actor Franco Nero, is a nice touch, too.)
"Letters to Juliet" is lightweight, certainly, but don't underestimate the pleasurable emotions this film stirs. Even cynics need the occasional feel-good moment.
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