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"LETTERS TO JULIET" (2010) (Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan) (PG) Alcohol/ Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude Frightening/ Tense Scenes Guns/ Weapons Moderate None Moderate Minor None Imitative Behavior Jump Scenes Music (Scary/Tense) Music (Inappropriate) Profanity Mild None None None Minor Sex/ Nudity Smoking Tense Family Scenes Topics To Talk About Violence Moderate Minor Mild Moderate Minor QUICK TAKE: Romantic Comedy: While her fiancé is off on business, an aspiring writer accompanies an older woman as they and the latter's grandson try to find the woman's long-lost love from fifty years ago. PLOT: Sophie Hall (AMANDA SEYFRIED) is a fact checker for the New Yorker, but dreams of being a writer. She gets the chance when she and her restaurateur fiancé, Victor (GAEL GARCIA BERNAL), travel to Verona, Italy for a pre-wedding vacation. Since his eatery in New York City is about to open, he's thrilled with meeting various food suppliers and vintners, thus leaving Sophie to fend for herself. After seeing various lovelorn women leaving romantic letters on the Juliet wall -- so named after the star-crossed lover of Shakespeare fame -- and then following the women who collect those letters, Sophie becomes acquainted with the Secretaries of Juliet. Learning that they write advice letters back to those original women about their love lives, Sophie joins them in their endeavor. When collecting the next batch, she discovers a letter from a young woman, Claire, wondering about what will happen with her and the love of her life, someone named Lorenzo. Despite that letter being around fifty years old, Sophie decides to take a chance and write back with her advice. Little does she expect, however, that Claire (VANESSA REDGRAVE) will actually show up, with her young adult grandson, Charlie Wyman (CHRISTOPHER EGAN), in tow. Despite him thinking it's a ridiculous idea, Sophie convinces Claire that they should try to find Lorenzo Bartolini. The only problem is they don't know if he's still nearby or even alive, let alone the fact that there are 74 men in the general area with that name. Undeterred, the two women set out to find the real one, all while Charlie protests but eventually begins to soften toward Sophie who similarly begins to develop feelings for him, especially with Victor being too busy to spend any time with her on their vacation. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? If they're fans of romantic comedies, anyone in the cast, or films set in Italy, they might show some interest in it. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG For brief rude behavior, some language and incidental smoking. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: AMANDA SEYFRIED plays a young fact checker for a major publication who dreams of being a writer. While on vacation in Italy with her fiancé, she's disappointed that he's spending all of his time making deals on his pending restaurant, thus leaving her alone. She ends up falling in with the Secretaries of Juliet and writes an advice letter back to Claire despite it being fifty years since she originally left it. Despite Charlie's protests, she convinces Claire to try to find Lorenzo, and thus they set off on a cross-country Italian tour looking for him. She initially clashes with Charlie, but then finds herself falling for him, despite being engaged to Victor. She drinks some wine. CHRISTOPHER EGAN plays a young adult Brit who's accompanied his grandmother to Verona, but thinks her quest to find a long-lost love from fifty years ago is a ridiculous waste of time. Accordingly, he initially clashes with Sophie, but eventually warms to and then falls for her. He drinks some wine. VANESSA REDGRAVE plays his grandmother, a woman who can still turn men's heads, and she does that while searching for her long-lost love with Sophie's help. She drinks a little wine. GAEL GARCIA BERNAL plays Sophie's fiancé who spends their pre-wedding vacation abroad working on his restaurant opening, thus leaving her to her own devices to entertain herself. While not mean-spirited about that, and always asking if it's okay that he goes off, he nonetheless puts his pending restaurant ahead of her in his priorities. He drinks some wine. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: Here's a brief summary of the content found in this romantic comedy that's rated PG. Profanity consists of a slang term, while some religious and colorful phrases are also uttered. Non-explicit, but sexually related dialogue is present, some paintings and statues show classic style nudity (bare breasts), and varying amounts of cleavage are viewed, as are both women and men in swimsuits. Drinking occurs in various scenes, while there's brief smoking. Some mostly lightly played bad attitudes are present (although one involves a young woman kissing someone other than her fiancé) as are some comments about past tense family material. If you're still concerned about the film and its appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home who may be interested in seeing it, we suggest that you take a closer look at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE Sophie has some wine after tasting some of Victor's pasta. About going on a vineyard tour, Victor tells Sophie they could drink a little wine and get tipsy. We then see them and a worker there drinking some wine. An older woman says men are like wine in that they take time to mature. Sophie and the secretaries of Juliet have wine with a meal. Victor pours wine for Sophie and himself, and then pours himself more. Victor heads off to a wine auction. Claire states she and Charlie are off for a glass of wine and wonders if Sophie wants to join them. Claire, Charlie, Sophie and the secretaries of Juliet have wine. We see bottles of wine at a wine auction. We see wine by two miscellaneous men. Claire, Sophie and Charlie have wine with dinner, while miscellaneous people have the same. Charlie and Sophie have wine in a bar where others drink. We see champagne in glasses in front of Claire, Charlie and Sophie, with Claire then raising a toast. Claire holds a glass of wine. Claire, Charlie and Sophie stop at a vineyard where Claire says they can have a "goodbye toast." They later have wine with a meal along with the owner and his family. We see wine and spirits bottles in Victor's bar. People have champagne at a wedding reception. BLOOD/GORE None. DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE Despite it being their pre-wedding vacation in Italy, Victor spends all of his time doing business deals and otherwise working, thus leaving Sophie to her own devices to entertain herself (after one day of doing work-related tours with him). Sophie and Charlie don't initially get along, with her making light of what might have been had Claire stayed with Lorenzo (meaning Charlie never would have been born), while Charlie tells her to give his condolences to Victor for being her fiancé. A man badmouths (what's presumably) his former wife, and then gives "the finger" to Claire, Charlie and Sophie for reminding him of her. Not knowing her story, Charlie angrily tells Sophie that she's never really experienced loss. Charlie and Sophie briefly kiss while lying side by side on the ground at night (she does this despite still being engaged to Victor). FRIGHTENING SCENES Charlie climbs up some vines and such to reach Sophie on a balcony, but then accidentally falls off backwards (we don't see the impact, he isn't hurt, and it's played lightly). GUNS/WEAPONS None. IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "That's awesome," "They're mad," "Prig," "Bollocks," "Buttoned-up, buttock-clinching" and "You're a total idiot." Lovelorn women place related letters on the "Dear Juliet" wall. A man badmouths (what's presumably) his former wife, and then gives "the finger" to Claire, Charlie and Sophie for reminding him of her. Sophie and Charlie playfully push ice cream into each other's faces. JUMP SCENES None. MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) None. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) None. PROFANITY At least 1 bollocks, 12 uses of "Oh my God" and 1 use of "Oh God." SEX/NUDITY The opening credits show various classic style paintings and images of people kissing and nearly kissing, as well as images showing bare breasts. While both are clothed, Sophie jumps up and wraps her legs around Victor's waist, and he spins her around. Sophie shows varying amounts of cleavage in various outfits (some low-cut and showing a lot). We see a bare-breasted classic statue where a few people jokingly place their hands on the breasts. One of Sophie's new friends shows a little cleavage. Not knowing her or her story, one woman says Claire probably grew up, got married, had ten kids and still makes passionate love to her husband every night. That's followed by a comment that the husband went bald, got fat and that she now does all of the work, followed by that when Claire makes loves to her husband, she's thinking of her first love, Lorenzo. We see Charlie in his swim trunks as he dives into a pool, while miscellaneous people are also in swim attire (women in bikinis, men in trunks) while sunbathing. We see other such miscellaneous views by the pool later. We see an older man in a Speedo type swimsuit, accompanied by younger women. After Claire excuses herself for the night, Charlie asks Sophie, "Should we hit the sack?" but then realizes how that sounded (he meant it non-sexually and separately). Charlie says he's not a buttoned-up, buttock-clinching sort of guy. Charlie and Sophie briefly kiss while lying side by side on the ground at night (she does this despite still being engaged to Victor). When Charlie states a woman with him is his cousin, Sophie (thinking it's his girlfriend) asks if that's legal. Charlie and Sophie passionately kiss. SMOKING A man hold an unlit cigar, while we see miscellaneous smoking in one scene. TENSE FAMILY SCENES We hear that Sophie's mom abandoned her when Sophie was just nine. A man badmouths (what's presumably) his former wife, and then gives "the finger" to Claire, Charlie and Sophie for reminding him of her. We hear that Charlie's parents were killed when he as ten. TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT Lovelorn women place related letters on the "Dear Juliet" wall. We hear that Sophie's mom abandoned her when Sophie was just nine. The notion of destiny. Realizing that someone you're romantically involved with isn't the right person for you. The comment that the question "What if?" will haunt someone for the rest of their life. VIOLENCE Charlie climbs up some vines and such to reach Sophie on a balcony, but then accidentally falls off backwards (we don't see the impact, he isn't hurt, and it's played lightly). Reviewed April 22, 2010 / Posted May 14, 2010

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