Romeo + Juliet
...ngth, fearlessness and delicateness. She outshines and outdoes Leonardo DiCaprio (Romeo), whose scenes with her are his only memorable ones. DiCaprio does not sound quite natural as he speaks Shakespearean words, probably because his American accent consumes the words, and sometimes it’s like he’s being forced to talk that way. But DiCaprio displays outstanding acting during the traumatic scenes toward the end. Nevertheless, the pair work well together. The best supporting actor is perhaps without a doubt, Harold Perrineau. He is a delightful and captivating Mercutio, who is presented as a drag queen. The disco tune at the Capulet’s party where he parades his stuff and dances is particularly memorable and humorous. John Leguizamo is quite successful as Tybalt and shines in the opening sequence. Miriam Margolyes (Juliet’s nurse) makes a fascinating and amusing nurse. Watch out for her highly unorthodox accent. Paul Sorvino is not as successful as Lord Capulet and may draw some unintentional laughs for his overdone caricature of Lord Capulet. Some of the lead characters use bizarre gesture, voice and facial expressions to create their characters. Mercutio has a habit of trickling amounts of saliva when he talks. Tybalt has a tendency to grind his teeth and tries to talk threateningly all the time. Benvolio has his disgusting and hysterical efforts to expand his facial flesh to unbearable heights. Juliet uses a lot of solemn and surprised facial expressions to convey her character. Romeo is brilliant when he uses voice and facial expressions to convey anger, sadness or desperation during the traumatic scenes. “DiCaprio eases into the troubled Romeo with tremendous eloquence, perfecting painful facial expressions and mastering emotion during powerful scenes.” Luhrmann has set “Romeo and Juliet” in modern Verona Beach that is part Miami and part Mexico Cit, with a mixture of Californian and Hispanic and characteristics from the 1940s, 1970s and 1990’s. Everything old fashioned like daggers, sabers, swords – has been transformed into modern ways like the use of guns. Everything is modern, but still has traditional dialogue. Luhrmann has even transformed Father Friar with a post delivery service named Poste Haste. The costumes at the party demonstrate each character’s respective personalities, such as Romeo dressing as a knight and Juliet as an angel. The characters have buzz cuts, pink hair, tattoos, and colourful clothing like pinks, purples and yellows, and wear Hawaiian shirts and black leather. Luhrmann cuts a few lines, not huge chunks, here and there, but the story still makes sense. Luhrmann’s priority for editing ...