There’s a great movie to be found within the new romantic comedy Letters to Juliet.  Unfortunately, that great movie is merely a subplot that serves yet another predictable, humorless, and unromantic romantic comedy.

Letters to Juliet stars current It Girl Amanda Seyfried as Sophie, an aspiring journalist on a pre-honeymoon to Italy with her fiancé, who’s more interested in meeting with possible vendors than seeing the sights with his soon-to-be bride.  While wandering through Verona, Sophie finds herself at the grave of Shakespeare’s Juliet where dozens of sobbing women are writing letters asking for romantic advice.  After following the woman who collects the letters, Sophie finds Juliet’s “secretaries” who write responses to each and every letter.

While helping to collect the letters, Sophie discovers one that was written fifty years ago and decides she has to write back.  Courtesy of what must have been a postal and travel miracle, the original letter-writer shows up seemingly within the hour, determined to find the man she once loved.  She and Sophie embark on this quest with vigor and this is where the movie could have been great, or at least better.  The idea of a woman now in her sixties searching for love she had at fifteen with only a name to go on and inspired by a fantastical reply to a letter she wrote to a fictional character is an intriguing one.  It’s actually kind of a shame that the woman, Claire, knows that Sophie is the one who wrote the letter.  Like the time-traveling mailbox in The Lake House, some elements are better left as a fantastical mystery.

The real shame, however, is that Claire’s quest merely serves as a framing device for another poorly-written and horribly-acted romantic comedy.  Claire didn’t come alone to Italy.  She brought along her grandson, Charlie.  From the moment Charlie and Sophie first meet and instantly dislike each other, we know exactly where this one is going.

Claire’s quest turns into an opportunity to travel around the country together and stay in small hotels where the layers of Charlie and Sophie’s distaste for each other is abruptly pulled away in the same old cliché, you-have-to-be-kidding-me ways.  Of course, there’s the moment when Charlie pulls off his shirt and Sophie immediately begins to reassess his, um, qualities.  Then there’s the not-so-subtle reveal that Charlie actually does charity work, so he can’t be that bad of a guy.  There’s no reason for these two to be together aside from the fact that they are both young and beautiful.  Maybe more importantly, there’s no reason for us as an audience to want them to be together.

It’s been a horrible year for romantic comedies and while Letters to Juliet is certainly not the worst of the bunch, it probably features the worst romantic pairing of the year.  Seyfried and Christopher Egan have absolutely no chemistry as they deliver the cheesiest of dialogue (“Why is it I feel like a schoolboy?”).  There was nothing to like about Egan, and Seyfried, an actress I once had high hopes for, just continues to disappoint.  When the pair finally kisses for the first time, the reaction in the audience was closer to a groan than a delighted sigh. Thank goodness for Vanessa Redgrave who towers over her costars in both height and acting talent.  She’s also still quite a beautiful woman at seventy-three.

It’s a shame that a concept with the potential for a real romantic adventure got turned into just another disappointing romantic comedy.  Shakespeare would be ashamed.

Letters to Juliet is rated PG for “brief rude behavior, some language and incidental smoking.”  Unlike the story, there’s very little to object to in terms of the content.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Letters to Juliet.