Romeo + Juliet (1996)
#24 in my 2007 movie challenge.That Romeo + Juliet came out over ten years ago surprised me. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I saw this in the theater. This is a cheeky, flamboyant adaptation by Baz Luhrmann. Danes and DiCaprio are luminous as the titular couple, but of the two, only DiCaprio acts well enough to do more than look good. This has a slow start, but builds toward its tragic, inevitable conclusion. The play is the thing here–the interpretation, the music and the sets, not so much the acting. We purchased the recently released Music Edition DVD, and it was well worth the time to watch the extras. They increased our appreciation of this odd and outrageous interpretation.