and Dear John 
painted her in the previously unimaginable role of go-to romantic lead. Letters to Juliet cements her foothold on that position, and it's largely because of her and the still gorgeous Vanessa Redgrave that this easily formulaic film isn't an outright disaster. There's no particular reason why a guy like me should like this movie. Men in this movie might as well be lampshades. It's aimed squarely at the female audience, who'll no doubt fall in love with the crib notes take on Romeo & Juliet presented. Travelling to the city of Verona, setting of Shakespeare's most beloved play about the two doomed lovers, Sophie(Seyfried) discovers a wall of love notes, placed on the wall of Juliet's courtyard. It's a ritual that's been going on for years, women writing their relationship hopes and dreams to the fictional lover. The letters are then taken up by a clandestine group of supposedly experienced women, who answer the inquiries in Juliet's name. It's a silly, cutesy premise, one that skims over the surface of Shakespeare's play without delving too deep.
Sophie is in Verona on a pre-marriage honeymoon of sorts with her fiance, Victor(Gael Garcia Bernal), an irritating restaurant owner who's constant catchphrase "It's a win win"! grows more aggravating by the moment. For him, the trip to Italy is a chance to try new foods for his business, utterly neglecting his emotionally abandoned lover. As a way of finding something to do, she lets herself become enraptured by the Women of Juliet, even answering a 50 year old letter that had been previously undiscovered. The letter's author, Claire(Redgrave), has been pining over the lover she left behind years ago. Sophie convinces Claire to go off on a road trip in search of this mysterious man, the idea of which puts Claire's grandson Charlie in a perpetual snit.
Charlie is of course one of those loveless, arrogant snots that are just dying to have their worldview shaken up by a pretty face. We can see the entire storyarc for Claire and Charlie developing from ten miles away. He's always angry, she's always hopeful. When she acts out of kindness, he responds with dry cynicsm. Obviously these two are meant to be. Maybe he's doing that thing like we did in grade school where we always picked on the girl we really liked? Some of us never got beyond that mating ritual, sadly.
The story follows the path of essentially three relationships: Claire and Victor; Clarie and Charlie, Sophie and her long lost Lorenzo. Claire's torn between two different guys, but both are fundamentally the same. That's the story's biggest problem. Victor is intentionally presented to us in a way that makes him unlikable almost from the moment we lay eyes on him, to the point where you wonder why she was ever with a schmuck like him to begin with. However, she has absolutely zero chemistry with Charlie. There's very little that actually forges a bond between them, other than mutual attraction. It makes the whole "true love" bit hard to swallow. There's a weak attempt to explain Charlie's brusk personality by claiming he's a typical Brit, but it faceplants pretty hard.
The journey itself is interesting only because of the beauty of the Italian countryside, even if it's crushed by an awful score by Andrew Guera. I think it's supposed to be bouncy and cheerful, but it made me want to bounce right out of the theater. To be frank, not a heck of a lot happens during the trip itself other than a worn out joke that every Italian male has the same name. Oh, and that Claire is seemingly irresistable to them all. When her long lost love finally shows up, a strapping old hunk riding a stallion no less(Viagara code?), it's more merciful than anything else.
The thread that pushes Juliet to romantic heights is Vanessa Redgrave, who injects much needed class and dignity to what is a pretty shallow flick. Even at her age, she still glows with beauty, sporting long shimmery white hair. The material provided her is pretty soft, but she plays it for all that it's worth, making her desperate search for her paramour engrossing, far surpassing the storyline of her younger co-stars. Not that I blame Seyfried. She does what she can with what is really a passionless role. Sophie's budding relationship with Charlie is just another plotpoint, never built on in any organic way. It's not good that I didn't want her to pick either guy. She could've become a nun as far as I was concerned.
Letters to Juliet will have some women swooning with its confectionary take on eternal love. It's a movie that knows exactly what it wants to be, which is a fairy tale romance that doesn't for a second let a silly thing like logic or real life intrude. Who'd want to pay to see a thing like that?
