When the star-crossed lovers of two enemy families meet, forbidden love ensues.
Perfectly respectable, but it won’t linger in the memory like Luhrmann’s.
Slow moving and staid, this will leave you longing for Luhrman’s energy and Zefferelli’s sense of sweep.
It has a sort of soapy reliability, but compare it to the blazing passion of Baz Luhrmann's modern-day version with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danesin gangland LA and it looks pretty feeble.
The settings (real Verona locations) offer some visual compensation for a text dismally rewritten by Fellowes in clichés and crib-notes English.
It is hard to work out why Julian Fellowes (of Downton Abbey fame) wanted to re-write Shakespeare. Wasn't the original up to scratch?
Three star-cross'd lovers.
He has trimmed and simplified while remaining faithful to the essence of one of the greatest love stories ever.
Drinking poison has never seemed so tempting.
With Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 version still the best straight adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, the 2013 incarnation finishes a poor third place.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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