The OTHER romantic flick I saw this Sunday was this utterly predictable romantic teen drama… I SO knew where this was going from minute one and I was NOT disappointed. It was called, get this, “Romeo and Juliet”… yeah, another version of the play… and, yeah, I’m only kidding.

I mean, there’s something to be said about whether or not we really need another film version of the play… but this one is set in the correct time period so probably makes it the first big screen “accurate” version since the 1960s Franco Zefirelli version (that we probably saw in jr. high). This version is fine though it doesn’t feel as emotionally strong as it should until the end (which, yeah, tragically works). It’s major flaw is that Romeo is played by some CW-looking prettyboy who is way better looking (in a generic CW way) than Juliet who is played by Hailey Steinfeld (who was the awesome in True Grit). She’s far from ugly but she’s not half as gorgeous as he is. I feel like a heel for saying that, but you gotta cast the thing right and I got the feeling they cast her first due to her age and how great she was in True Grit and then cast around the CW lot for a guy that would appeal to all the tweens. I’m being unfair to the actor though – he does a fine job as Romeo in the long run.

In fact, the whole cast does a good job… especially the lady who plays the Nurse and Paul Giammati as Friar Laurence. The actors are able to repeat the lines like they know what they are talking about which makes it VERY easy to follow the dialogue. So good job overall…. though I’d rather watch the batty Leonardo DiCaprio/Claire Danes version (even if some of the actors seemed a little lost in that version).

Score: 83