A movie I randomly decided to watch on a Friday night when I was bored turned out to be a fascinating story of how true love will always find you, no matter how long you have to wait.
“Letters to Juliet” is a movie starring Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan, and Vanessa Redgrave. Amanda Seyfried’s character, Sophie, goes to Verona, Italy, on a trip with her fiance,é who is busy with work and isn’t interested in spending much time with her. While she is walking around Verona, she discovers a wall where people who are heartbroken leave letters to Juliet Capulet from the famous Shakespearean play, “Romeo and Juliet.” They ask Juliet for advice on what to do, and they get responses from Juliet’s Club, who are also known as Juliet’s secretaries.
Sophie finds a letter written in 1957 hidden behind a brick on that wall and writes back to the woman asking for advice. Later, she finds out that the very woman, Claire, and her grandson Charlie have come back to Italy to find her true love against her grandson’s wishes, who came with her to supervise. They all proceed to go on a journey in the surrounding area to find Claire’s true love once again.
This story captures the conflict that arises when finding true love and how each character in the story learns to move through these obstacles in the hope of finding the love they were always searching for. It is beautifully written, and the cinematography is very well done. It is one of those movies that doesn’t go exactly as you expect, but that aspect of it is what makes the movie so good.
The movie is rated PG, so you can watch it with your whole family. Additionally, the movie is based on real places. In Verona, Italy, there truly is a wall where the heartbroken leave their letters to Juliet, and Juliet’s secretaries collect their letters and respond to them with advice and kind words.
A fun fact about this movie is that Vanessa Redgrave, Claire’s actor, and Franco Nero, the man who plays Claire’s love interest, are married in real life. They met on the set of Camelot in 1966 and got married, but decided to end their relationship. Right before this movie was made, these two actors rekindled their relationship and got back together, and are still together today.
This movie also contains a song by Taylor Swift called “Love Story.” This song is a fan favorite of hers, so if you are a fan of Swift and want something fun to associate the song with, “Letters to Juliet” is definitely the movie for you.
This movie was so incredibly good that I had to re-watch it the next day, and the day after that with my whole family. It is a must-watch and will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time you are watching it. I highly recommend you watch this movie as it is now one of my favorites.
