This very updated classic seems like an MTV dance party got their script
replaced with Shakespeare. And got into it. Strangely enough, that combination
seems to work. Soaked in suave style, the sexy young cast whips through
Elizabethan English like it was a hit song on the pop charts. Capulets in
tight black, and "The Montague Boys" sporting white-boy surfer
fashion, the feuding families of Verona Beach flex, fondle, and fight point
blank from beginning to disastrous end. Edited like an Andre Agassi Nike
commercial, the film flies fast and fierce towards its fiery finish, letting
up only momentarily for some nice T&A between Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio)
and Juliet (Claire Danes). The chemistry between the "star cross'd"
lovers is actually fairly good, and well supplemented with underwater shots,
between-the-sheets shots, rock star love songs, and lots of other kissy-kissy
stuff. Good for a starry-eyed date.
Combining contemporariness and period-ness in a very unconventional way,
director Baz Luhrmann ("Strictly Ballroom") sticks fairly close
to the play's original language, while throwing around sets, costume, and
casting like it was 1999. The opening "Do you bite your thumb at
us, sir?" sequence takes place at a filling station, with Montague
and Capulet tempers flaring as they gas up their rich-boy cars. Mercutio
(Harold Perrineau) shows up as a cock-diesel black transvestite who does
a mean Priscilla-(Queen of the Desert)-esque cabaret routine at the Capulet
Ball. If for nothing else, this film is worth seeing just for the costumes
and decor. Amazing how far that, and the language of Shakespeare, can carry
a film.
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