The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

Wow, and I thought "Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss" was bad. This version of the beloved play is terrible. There is no effort, no talent and nothing salvageable about this movie at all. I had found this on YouTube and decided to watch it. Big mistake. This was so bad, I didn't want to finish it.

First of all, nobody knows how to act in this movie. Alex Hyde-White does a pathetic job as Romeo. He is way too over the top, and when he does give a reaction, he's not attempting to try.

Juliet, played by Blanche Baker, is equally as bad. She gives a dull as dishwater performance and looks like she doesn't care.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes did a much better job at portraying Romeo and Juliet than these two! Heck, so did Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey! All of these actors look like they've pulled off the street in this film and look like they don't know what they're doing. I'm being serious.

And secondly, the entire cast puts little to no effort in saying the Shakespearian dialogue. They just say their lines as if they were in a high school play. When you're in a movie like "Romeo and Juliet," you have to at least SHOW the audience you care. These actors don't give two craps that they're in an adaptation of William Shakespeare's classic story.

Do I really need to say anything else in this review? I think I just summed up this entire movie for you; Clear as crystal. This version of "Romeo & Juliet" is garbage, from start to finish. Nothing's redeemable about this movie, whatsoever. If you want to see good adaptations of the play, I recommend the anime, the 1996 version starring DiCaprio and the one from 1968.

This adaptation is, indeed, a tragedy.

This version is a filmed play set on a stage, and it therefore lacks the refinements of a Hollywood movie. As a stage play it does a great job of conveying how it may have appeared to an Elizabethan audience. Unfortunately, it also lacks one requirement: a Juliet who can act.

Except for Juliet, most of the casting is respectable enough. Alex Hyde-White's Romeo has a bit of a whiny voice, but you get used to it. Dan Hamilton's Mercutio is a bit too refined for the ribald swordsman. And Esther Rolle's Nurse is more stern than flighty, which gives her jokes an unusual harshness. The rest of the cast is solid.

Which brings us to Blanche Baker... wow.... She manages to drain any sexual tension out of every line. Her part of the sonnet spoken to Romeo during the party (i.e., "pilgrims' hands") were spoken as if she were actually praying in church, which makes the subsequent kisses uncomfortably out of place. The balcony scene was especially disconcerting: Mr. Hyde-White was acting and doing his best to play off Ms. Baker, but her responses were so wooden I began to feel sorry for him. Probably not the emotion they were trying for. Ms. Baker never gets better.

With a better Juliet this would have been rated 4 or 5 out of 10.

Teachers looking for a staged version should use the 1976 Joan Kemp-Welch play, which is slightly better than the 1978 BBC/Alvin Rakoff play.