The film, while featuring the besieged friar, also does a successful job highlighting the egregiously intense hormonal urges of young men: Tybalt (Ed Westwick) and Mercutio (Christian Cooke) have the feral ferocity of doomed warriors.
In fact, most of the supporting players such as Damian Lewis's Lord Capulet are welcome pros next to the amateurish leads. Lesley Manville as the Nurse is second only to Giamatti, a loving servant with a twinkle and a deep understanding of the lethal games. Look for his Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. Giamatti's range from sweet confessor and cupid to perplexed operative is masterful. Yet the real reason to see this new production is Paul Giamatti's Friar Laurence, a benign manipulator undone by forces beyond his control. The ancient estates are astonishingly effective as horses race past old bricked walls and lovely ladies act beneath frescoes and columns that boast of nobility. However, for sets and cinematography, his production is beautiful, having been lovingly filmed in Verona.
So, the outdoor production I saw this summer outflanked director Carlo Carlei's uneven take. Add to that another woe: Douglas Booth's Romeo is prettier than Steinfeld with only slightly better articulation.
"For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo." Count Paris (Tom Wisdom) The "woe" in this umpteenth adaptation of Romeo and Juliet over the last 400 years is that the titular lass, as played by Hailee Steinfeld, is weakly acted with immaturity, poor elocution, and disappointing physical presence.
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