Romeo + Juliet (thoughts and impressions)

 Shakespearian writing is a strange kind of meta dance between the action of the play and the dialogue. Dancing barbs and contradiction one at the other. Mirroring the very act of consciousness itself in microcosmic study.

This movie adaption adds elements of farce exaggerating elements of the grotesque that (while always present in the text) in there unedited format had more dignity and less slapstick. Combine with the alt rock reading of Shakespearian verse (it is more often screamed then read with subtlety). And you have a vibe like glitter and pavement. Maybe the most Hollywood thing ever made. Near unjustifiable and yet impossible to ignore to look away from at the emotional equivalent of a blowtorch being lit and held to an exposed and shortly beating heart.

The editing down makes for a story mostly true in key beats… but also the on the fringe it collages dialogue for its own purpose so often that it feels like its own thing.

The key dramatic choices are visual and a commentary on our distance from theatrical violence. The moments it works (the ending and mercurtios death) feels as if it in a way it counter points the Quentin Tarantino perspective on writing (it is there to inspire the shooting of a film and little merit beyond that).  Layering Enya new age spirituality with the vibrant bullshit of tv commercials and music videos.

I hear the English teachers in the back of the room piping up with “you not describing Shakespeare but some pornographic horror story… empty sensuality, nihilistic commercialism…” I feel that but if ALL the world is a stage it includes grotesque glamour as much as tragic dignity and spiritual dissonance. 

The movie is a human mess in a way that it is offensive to the text and also kind of inspiring in how much humanity it breaths into the tomb (in-spite of all warnings the contrary). It will not allow one of the great tragedy’s in human history to be some kind of talking point for ironic distance in life. It is Bonny and Clyde with a better script. It is Kurt and Courtney with a less engaging soundtrack (though God bless Radioheads  heart they try with exit music [for a film]).

Could the film be better? Without a doubt. Is it bad? It’s complicated. Do I hate it? No. There is to much here that is interesting enough to help distract me from it’s inefficiencies as a adaption.

The moral of the story: if you’re gonna bring a Glock or any other brand of death to a shaksperian addaption … simply call it a sword for know other reason then the text demands more then the world (the stage) can accommodate.

Violence can be grotesque and pornstars are doing what all star crossed lovers have done for centuries with a different intent.

I leave you with a Bible verse… Matthew 5:45 "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."