Letters to Juliet
In Verona, Italy, Romeo-besotted girls still leave notes on the wall next to Juliet's balcony asking for love advice that women are employed to answer. Sophie, a New Yorker researcher played by a live-wire Amanda Seyfried, answers one herself. It was left in 1957 by Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), who enlists Sophie to help her find Lorenzo Bartolini, the boy she left behind in her teens. It's unapologetic schmaltz, deftly directed by Gary Winick (Tadpole) as if it really meant something. Redgrave is incandescent, and casting Franco Nero as Lorenzo was inspired. Nero and Redgrave had a son soon after they co-starred in 1967's Camelot, but they didn't marry until 2006. Watching art imitate life provides a charm that can't be faked.