Review: Letters to Juliet

After Raffy left the condo, Grai and I decided to watch Letters to Juliet. We both haven't seen the film so we were both in it for a treat. 

The movie's named after just what the story's all about; letters to Juliet. Sophie, a wannabe writer, and her fiance, Victor, a chef who wanted to put up an Italian restaurant, were out for a vacation in Europe. They were supposed to be on a pre-honeymoon, but they wanted to do different things on their own -- Victor was just focused on talking to suppliers, going to wine auctions and tasting cheese while Sophie wanted to explore the great countries. While Victor was in a wine auction, Sophie went to Vernon where she stumbled upon a wall in which women from all over the world posted their hand written letters to Juliet. She came to stay and write her own when she noticed a woman, Isabella, take down the letters one by one and put it in a basket. Out of curiosity, she followed Isabella and she found herself in a room where the secretaries of Juliet gathered around to write back to all these women.

During her first time to take down letters from the wall, Sophie found a loose brick in the wall; and in that hole she found a letter written by a woman named Claire dated fifty years ago. The letter was about her being a coward and not going for the love she wanted at that time, and instead left to go back to school. Instinctively, Sophie wanted to send out a reply to this woman. After a few days or so, an arrogant man, Charlie, walked into the room and was preposterously mad at Sophie for sending out a letter to his grandmother. He reacted that way because he didn't want his grandmother to get hurt (i.e. what if the man was happily married with children and grandchildren, what if the man was dead). They engaged in a debate where Charlie stormed out of the place and went back to the wall. Sophie, being as curious as she is, followed him and that's when she met Claire. She then found out that Claire wanted to find her true love, Lorenzo, the man she reluctantly left a long time ago. Sophie volunteered to tag along and help find this man.

Sophie, Claire and Charlie circled in on their journey, eliminating those men who were out of the area. They visited every farm and every house they crossed out on the map in the hopes of finding Claire's one true love. Meanwhile, Sophie continued to feel distant from Victor -- firstly because they were literally far from each other, and secondly because she felt as if Victor was never interested in her stories or what she wanted to do with her life. They loved each other but their differences got so much in the way that made her unhappy. Her unhappiness made her do things she wasn't supposed to do -- she enjoyed the company of Charlie and they kissed romantically while lying on the grass, under the stars.

Sophie had crossed out all Lorenzos in their vicinity and that was when she knew she had failed Claire. Nevertheless, she wanted to continue on their search but Charlie was against it this time. She had no choice but to just leave things be and go home to her fiance. As they were driving, Claire wanted to visit a vineyard of their favorite wine. Not to say much more cheesy stuff, they vineyard was where Claire and Lorenzo met for the first time in fifty years.

To fast forward to the end of the story, Sophie went back to New York to submit her story about Claire and Lorenzo and the publisher wanted to print it! One day as she entered her office, Claire and Lorenzo had sent her an invitation to their wedding. That next morning, she decided to end things with Victor and attend the wedding on her own; it was also undeniable that Sophie wanted to go after Charlie. So she travelled to Europe to witness a simple and beautiful wedding, only to find out that Charlie had brought a date with him, Patricia, a girl he mentioned to Sophie a while back that was his ex lover. For a moment there, she thought she had her heart broken, but like all love stories, it ended well with a kiss after Charlie fell off of climbing up the vines leading to a balcony where Sophie was standing -- yes, Romeo and Juliet style.

All in all, the movie was a great love story -- the condo was filled with awww's coming from me and Grai, and I almost swear that if I were alone, I would've cried my eyes out while my mouth was full with potato chips! :-) I loved every bit of it, probably because all the cliche, romantic scenes were done with dignity. They were not overly done and overrated; plus, they were in a very romantic country.

As little girls, we dream of that perfect wedding. I used to dream of walking down the aisle with a white, princess-type balloon wedding gown whose tail reaches the middle of the church when I'm standing at the altar. I want to have the perfect reception at a fancy restaurant that had a rooftop, drinking champagne and toasting to true love. Of course, things change as time takes its course. As a nineteen year old girl, I dream of a beach wedding. I want my groom and I to be the only ones wearing white and our theme would be of blues and greens or oranges and yellows. I want our drinks to be margaritas and pina coladas and I want us to be barefoot, not in stilettos and leather shoes.

But I guess the real journey here is not about planning about the wedding, because girls have all the time in the world to think about that. When the moment comes, I'll eventually know what I want to do to create the perfect wedding that will remain forever in my heart and photo albums. Instead, the adventure is finding the man who will wait for me topless -- only wearing sand-colored drawstring pants, barefoot, at the end of a red-colored banig that will replace a carpet. Like they always say the mind is put over the heart because it should be the one to be followed. But I say, it's always a mixture of both. It's about knowing what your heart wants and using your mind to make it happen. After all, not everybody gets to travel to Vernon to write a letter to Juliet. It's up to us to make our destiny because in reality, happiness isn't handed to us on a silver platter. Happiness is a choice. :-)