The story is gorgeous. A girl and her fiance in Italy on holiday together, he is very busy with business, so she finds herself helping out the 'secretaries to Juliet'. These ladies collect love letters left in a wall in Verona, asking for Juliet's advice on love. Our heroine, Sophie, played by Amanda Seyfried (yes, she was sophie in Mamma Mia as well) finds a 50 yo love letter that she feels compelled to respond to. Enter vanessa Redgrave as the writer of this letter and still keen to find the lost love referenced in this letter, she brings with her, a snooty English grandson, played by Chris Egan of Home and Away fame. They all go on the search and i'm sure I'm not spoiling this for anyone by saying that of course they find the great Italian love and of course Sophie and Charlie fall for each other as well!
So, story, pretty cute, predictable, yes, but none the less, entertaining and romantic. Sadly, the script was very ordinary and the players didn't help it. You know sometimes there is a dreadful script, but if you have the right actors, it can almost work? Well this didn't happen. I thought Amanda was ok, no real stretch for her acting chops though. Chris Egan as Charlie overacted and the english accent felt very put on (and I seriously could not look at his duck feet for one second longer - has he always walked like this? Anyone??) Gael Garcia Bernal, who has been quite delicious in the past, was so annoying that I was always pleased when his part was over again!!! The scenery was spectacular and made me want to hop on a plane to Italy right now!! I think for me the chemistry of the leads never hit its stride, it felt try hard and not real, and this is usually a major bummer for a romance!!! However, I didn't hate it, just didn't really love it either. Let's just say, it's no LAST SONG!!!!
An interesting fact about the film is that Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero, who plays Lorenzo her long lost love, is actually Vanessa's long lost love. They met on the set of Camelot in 1967, fell in love and had a son, they then split a couple of years later. They rekindled their romance just a few years ago 36 years after their original split!!! Nice!!!
