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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO & JULIET is a version for the nineties, with abbreviations in more places than just the title. Fair Verona is now Verona Beach, a sun-baked battlezone where all the young dudes carry pistols, cruise the streets in low-riders, and pledge allegiance to one of two rival gangs, er, households. (An aerial shot says it all, showing the names Montague and Capulet in giant letters across the tops of their respective skyscrapers.) Early scenes are played at the pace of a music video, with character introductions cunningly conducted through the use of freeze-frames and title cards. Down Under director Baz Luhrmann (STRICTLY BALL- ROOM) sends his camera spinning in every conceivable direction, sometimes sped-up, sometimes in slow-motion. His hyperkinetic style is intoxicating, but there's a catch: the characters speak in iambic pentameter and not always that well. The language that you learned to hate in high school spills from many an untrained mouth. Bill's banter is spoken, shouted, mumbled, fumbled, and ultimately drowned out by the many sounds of the street. No problem at first, in those explosive early scenes, such as a gas-station shoot-out shot like a Hong Kong spaghetti western. When the director calms down-- and he does, regrettably-- the movie also slows down and the badly delivered dialogue starts to sink the story, instead of anchoring it. (Of the young actors, only Claire Danes seems to know what she's doing. The best thesps over thirty are Vondie Curtis-Hall's local police captain and Pete Postlethwaite's Father Laurence.) Another problematic point is the plot, which isn't entirely believable by contemporary standards. (Romeo is sentenced to "banishment?" Huh? And why doesn't Juliet just run away from home?) A grand failure, yes, but at least one that's great fun to watch. (Rated "PG-13"/121 min.) Grade: B- Copyright 1996 by Michael J. Legeros
Originally posted in triangle.movies as No Holds Bard