The Last Letter !

Letters to Juliet

I think in the conventional hum-drum of typical Hollywood rom-coms, this particular story comes like a whiff of fresh air. There is a beauty in its depiction, an almost lyrical flow of events and ofcoure, no matter how many times we have might have seen a pre-ordained ending; its treatment is quite flavoured in this movie. 

The story was nicely paced, the de-tour to Italy and its various scenic panoramas coupled with an engaging background music kept the interest alive till the last frame.

All most all the characters have given a superb performance. Amanda as the fact-checker turned letter-writer turned ‘search’ assistant, Sophie, is super-cute; I could not really take my eyes off her in the entire screenplay, while Vanessa Redgrave redefines grace and glamour at her age.  The male leads have nothing much to deliver except sticking to their dialogues as demanded by the script; however Christopher Egan as Charlie does get  to play the hard as nuts yet soft as a softie tight-lipped ‘realist’ Brit boy. And no, I didn’t like his chemistry with Amanda, even as they enacted ‘miss-the-kiss’ coy. 

The message of the story, that ‘true love’ survives, almost manages to convincingly make its way into our heart, despite the cliché’s. There are some beautiful moments where it resonates and tickles, leaving memories untwined. You almost become the part of the search and revel with joy at the re-union of Claire and Lorenzo. Interestingly, Vanessa Redgrave who plays Claire and Franco Nero who plays Lorenzo are both real life couple. It feels amazing how both actors live their character on-screen with such finesse and conviction. 

However, the only glitch I found was the turn of events that happen between Sophie and Charlie. During the search for the original Lorenzo, it was clearly made evident that Sophie had a void with her boyfriend, Victor, and that she would eventually get attracted to the un-despicable boyish charm of Charlie. But whether this attraction would replace her commitment for Victor, was surely the surprise I dint wait to watch. I did not find her reason convincing enough to leave Victor and go back to Charlie. And by the way, what was that “cousin with the same girlfriend name”, Patricia, doing in that scheme of thing? It might seem romantic, this part of the ‘true’ love story, but personally I was disappointed.

Question one :, when she choose Victor as her boyfriend, presuming she was madly in love with him , despite his imperfections, even planning a honeymoon without a wedding, how can she dump him like that , saying “I have changed” ?

Question two : Now that , destiny (read marriage invitation)  brings her back to meet Charlie, how does she convince me , that he is going to be his true and ultimate love and she is not going to dump him , let’s say, unless she finds another charmer lurching around ?

I would have rated it very high, almost on the lines of ‘The Notebook’, had it retained its purity and originality. It did, almost to a certain extent, by showing us the tradition of writing letters to Juliet and waiting for fifty long years to get an answer and then, like a vagabond, searching for your love with an undying faith.

Only, yeah, if only, it didn’t do the theatrical staging of Romeo and Juliet in Juliet’s balcony in the end, in the form of Sophie and Charlie and that entire masquerade thrown around.

Till that point, I had enjoyed a beautiful romantic movie. Suddenly I realized, it was a comedy too. 

Nevertheless, the movie is a reminiscence of the last love letter.  

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