What Do The Critics Say?

"There's more than a dash of old-fashioned schmaltz in the disarming romance "Letters to Juliet," and that's part of its charm. A light-hearted, empty-headed piece of sentimental fluff about love young and old, "Letters" achieves what it sets out to accomplish : an amusing, touching, reassuringly wholesome romantic travelogue of a film that flies by on its way to the inevitable happy ending." Tom Long DETROIT NEWS "Redgrave is incandescent, and casting Franco Nero as Lorenzo was inspired." Peter Travers ROLLING STONE "Letters to Juliet is the biggest load of weepie sludge we are likely to see this year. Naturally, I quite enjoyed it." Evan Williams THE AUSTRALIAN 'Redgrave brings a lovely gravity to the lightweight proceedings, while Seyfried again proves an unusually levelheaded presence." Elizabeth Weitzman NEW YORK DAILY NEWS "Seyfried is a real beauty and her star is definitely on the rise after adding this definitive chick flick to her resume. Redgrave is still a classy dame and steals every scene that she appears in." Keith Cohen ENTERTAINMENT SPECTRUM "What's important is that it avoids the unfunny jokiness and juvenile tendencies that define too many romantic comedies while also sidestepping the mawkishness of the Nicolas Sparks-inspired dramas. Letters to Juliet, I am happy to report, successfully applies the romantic formula and, as a result, provides a relaxing 105 minutes." James Berardinelli REELVIEWS

"Filmed in beautiful Verona, Italy, "Letters to Juliet" takes an improbable script and turns it into a moving love story, featuring wonderful performances by Vanessa Redgrave and Amanda Seyfried. Winning performances by the trio make it completely acceptable to believe in this fairy tale. The end result is a satisfying movie-going experience." David Kaplan KAPLAN VS KAPLAN "Cinematographer Marco Pontecorvo's sun-drenched palette would be a perfectly sound reason to see this film, but happily it's not the only one." Joy Tipping DALLAS MORNING NEWS "A radiant Vanessa Redgrave heads an almost perfect cast in this unabashedly romantic movie." JACKIEKCOOPER "Its cast is remarkably strong for such simple fare. Cynics will mock it, but it's an undeniable crowd pleaser even if its resolution drags on too long." Connie Ogle MIAMI HERALD "Set in some stunning locales in Italy, Letters is a guilty pleasure that's lighter on the guilt and heavier on the pleasure. Who can resist a happy ending and a love that spans the ages? Especially when the lovers are played by real-life longtime couple Redgrave and Franco Nero?" Claudia Puig USA TODAY "This is a superior offering. It gives the first clear evidence that the doe-eyed Seyfried can really act; it soothes the eyes with luscious views of beautiful Tuscany in all its moods, mostly the ones you see on postcards; and it's far better written than most films of the kind, which is probably why Redgrave agreed to do it. This is a well-played film, with sensitive direction from Gary Winick." Paul Byrnes SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

The Inside Story on Letters To Juliet "Two households, both alike in dignity in fair Verona, where we lay our scene." William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, The Prologue. In point of fact whether Romeo and Juliet is real and from Verona, Italy has become irrelevant since Verona is known as the location on which Shakespeare based his play. Half a million tourists descend upon the northern Italian city (ninety minutes west of Venice) specifically to visit the courtyard where notes of love lost and won are affixed to the stone wall; to stand on Juliet’s balcony and pose next to the bronze statue of Juliet (with her right breast polished to a sheen from the tradition of touching it for good luck). Production began on June 25th 2009 in Verona, which (next to Rome, Florence and Venice) is the most visited city in Italy. "What makes it so wonderful about this tradition (of the courtyard) and love in general, is that everyone wants to believe in it,” says director Gary Winick. Since the 1930s 'Juliet' has received thousands of letters from all over the world; sometimes the missives are sometimes simply addressed as 'Juliet, Verona,' but all of them reach their destination (the Club di Giulietta), which is staffed by volunteers. And all the letters are answered; sometimes with the help of outside translators. The idea for the movie got momentum when producers Caroline Kaplan and Ellen Barkin were intrigued by an album of Elvis Costello’s, "The Juliet Letters" which followed the pair becoming aware of the Verona Courtyard phenomenon. Soon after, they discovered the book “Letters to Juliet: Celebrating Shakespeare’s Greatest Heroine, the Magical City of Verona and The Power of Love” by sisters Lise and Ceil Friedman. "It all seemed like such a beautiful and romantic idea and as we kept exploring more and more about the idea, we finally went to Summit with the notion that Gary would be the director and it came together very quickly," says Kaplan. "For me, what I find is the most interesting and complicated and universal is material that deals with people’s relationships and their emotions," says Winick. "For some people it’s as if they live their lives on a checkerboard and you’re on a square and only move to the next square because of circumstances. But imagine if you would change your life just based on courage, and simply make the leap without being pushed," adds Winick. "Gary’s sensibilities are a bulls eye for this movie which, is in the best sense of the term, a date movie," says producer Mark Canton. "It deals with an intrinsic human trait: it’s hard to run from what the heart tells you and sometimes it’s hard to run toward what the heart tells you." The movie is notable if for no other reason as to demonstrate that movies are the world’s language: the five stars of the movie are from five different countries; Seyfried (United States), Redgrave (U.K.), Egan (Australia), Bernal (Mexico) and Nero (Italy). Coming off of the international box office sensation of "Mamma Mia", and the series "Big Love", Seyfried had proven herself as an actress but had not yet been the lead in a project and in particular, one that required her to be in virtually every scene. "The movie rides on her shoulders," Winick notes. "She’s certainly luminous on screen but what’s going on for her is two voyages: finding her mother, meaning Vanessa and finding her true love, which is not Victor. "She’s deep, she’s funny and there’s a lot going on behind those amazing eyes," says Winick. "When I read the script and realized that I was in every scene, I thought, well, it’s going to be a lot of work but I sort of thrive on the interaction with the cast and crew. I like socializing, so it was a blessing and a curse because by the end of the movie, I was really tired," says Seyfried. "It doesn’t take tremendous insight to realize that Vanessa Redgrave would be great for the role," says 2007 Franklin J Schaffner Award winner Winick. "She’s great in everything she’s done. Our casting director (Ellen Lewis) always says, 'You get that one actor who raises the bar and thereby brings up the level of the movie' and that happened on this movie and it was because of Vanessa." "If you’re going to be on screen with Vanessa Redgrave, you better bring it," says Canton ("The Spiderwick Chronicles"). "Because she comes early, leaves late, knows her lines and your lines." For Seyfried, any intimidation about playing so many scenes opposite a screen legend was quickly dissipated. "Nothing is a big deal to Vanessa. She’s so smart, so present and incapable of being false on camera so that you immediately relax in her presence." The talented Gael Garcia Bernal ("The Motorcycle Diaries") plays her intense, hyper-kinetic boyfriend of Victor. "It’s a role, the likes of which, I’ve never played before. Victor is very specific and loves food more than anything else and wants to share that with his girlfriend, Sophie,"” says Garcia Bernal. Finding the actor to play Charlie: someone who can play Redgrave’s grandson and be believable as the guy that would cause Sophie to think twice about her current relationship; was the hardest task during casting. "Getting Chris was divine intervention and it was really late in the game when we settled on him" says producer Caroline Kaplan ("Pieces of April"). "Casting is probably the most difficult part of movie making but when it works with two people; it’s so apparent and so magical." "Ultimately, it comes down to when the two actors are in the room and they’re playing off one another. When 'it' happens you know it immediately," says Winick. "But as it turned out we auditioned scores of actors for Charlie in New York and London and it was a lot of work until we came across Chris Egan." Conversely, finding the actor for Lorenzo, Claire’s long-lost love, the filmmakers didn’t have to look too far. "Aside from being married to Vanessa, Franco Nero is a wonderful actor and capturing that moment where the two of them find each other after fifty years; well, it would be hard to create the intensity with someone other than Franco. Nero. And the fact that the character and he are both Italian and we are shooting in Italy: well, it worked out perfectly," says Winick. The pair first met on "Camelot" in 1966 when director Joshua Logan cast Redgrave as Guenevere, Nero as Lancelot Du Lac and Richard Harris as King Arthur. "I think Vanessa is the best actress we’ve seen Even though I’m her husband these are not my words. These are the words of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller and I agree with them," says Nero. "I’ve worked with her about ten times over fourty three years and her talent is a gift that astonishes directors." Vanessa and Franco married on the 31st of December 2006 after a thirty six year split and have a son, Carlo Gabriel Nero born 16th September 1969. For Winick, having the obvious chemistry between Redgrave and Franco was very important, but shooting in Italy and having an Italian actor of his presence helped make the movie 'just feel right'. Aside from his leads, Winick fleshed out the rest of the movie with nearly all Italian actors. All of the 'secretaries de Guilietta' were cast out of Italy. "I remember the book "Fellini Faces" (Italian director Federico Fellini) which has these great portraits of Italian character actors and my goal was to get those great looks which would immediately elevate the role of the secretaries. It runs the gamut from the extraordinarily beautiful Luisa Raneri (Isabella in the movie) to the great character face Luisa DeSantis. " "Anyway, I cast all these ladies and I had a rehearsal with them and it astounded me how much energy they created when all together." Winick recalls all he could think about at the time was, "I wish I had a camera rolling." Once the casting was completed in early June, the focus turned to the logistics of making the movie and in particular trying to pull of something not thought possible: having the city of Verona closing down their main tourist attraction (Casa di Giulietta) for two days to allow filming in the courtyard. It took almost three months of negotiating with the city and for them to realize the long-term tourism benefit would be worth the couple days of pain. Production designer and two time Art Directors Guild, Excellence in Production Design Award Stuart Wurtzel (2004 & '06) altered the location (the entry way to the courtyard was a white wall covered in graffiti) by adding a faux brick covering to the walls with brick columns and in general made it less 'touristy' and more representative of what it might have been like in Juliet’s time. "The colours of Italy are the colours of the earth and it’s gorgeous in every direction so my instinct was to 'dial it back' so as not to intrude on the story." Other locations around the Verona area included the spectacular estate, Villa Arvedi (scene for where Claire meets one of the many 'Lorenzos'); the small village of Soave (famous for its white wine produced by Inama, Pieropan and Anselmi) which had a more 'Southern Italian' look to it as well as an establishing shot of Sophie walking the streets of Verona in front of the two thousand year old Arena, home to the most famous outdoor opera season in the world. The production also travelled to scenic Lake Garda (one of the famous three northern Italian lakes) before moving the production south to Siena. From there shooting was done all over Tuscany, and for ten days the Argiano vineyards (one hour south of Siena) where the world-famous Brunello wine is produced. Two days were spent in the historic ancient city of Siena amidst the steep narrow streets that all feed down to the his historic Piazza del Campo where the production 'stole' a shot of Sophie and Charlie crossing the vast public square while thousands of tourists were too taken with the historic surroundings to notice the movie camera. The Borgo Scopeto Hotel, formerly a family estate for centuries, was the location for the interior and exterior hotel scenes where Sophie, Claire and Charlie based out of for the Tuscany excursion. Nestled amidst vineyards and olive groves about twenty minutes from Siena, the hotel was where the Italian portion of the movie wrapped on August 13, 2009. The day after the actors and key crew flew to New York City for four days of filming. Bryant Park and Times Square were the two key exterior locations and Victor’s restaurant was located in an empty building in SoHo. Did the locations induce a romantic mood on the set? "Amanda and I were doing a scene in an outdoor café in Siena eating some ice cream and then we spent the rest of the day shooting scenes of us walking around the city and it even though we’re doing multiple takes and surrounded by a big crew, it’s hard not to feel romantic," Egan recalls. "The sights and the language start to overwhelm your senses." "The Italy I knew as a child is pretty much gone and most of the tourists go to the same regions, but I think this movie will show them a little more than what they thought Italy was about," Redgrave notes. "There are certain movies where the location becomes a character," notes Winick. "Growing up in New York on Woody Allen films, you really get a sense of that. Being in Italy gets inside of you and it comes out in the performances." What's It All About?

When aspiring magazine writer Sophie and her husband to be Victor fly from New York to Italy for a pre-wedding honeymoon, the stage seems set for some much needed romance in their relationship. Victor, who is opening an Italian restaurant in New York, neglects Sophie, by paying more attention to his Italian suppliers products than her. Alone in the romantic city of Verona, where Romeo first met Juliet, Sophie meets a group of volunteers who respond to letters written to Juliet seeking romantic advice. Sophie finds and answers a letter that has been lost for 50 years. She's stunned when its author Claire arrives in Italy with her handsome but overprotective grandson to find the fiance she left decades before. Fascinated by Claire's quest, Sophie joins them on an adventure through the beautiful hills of Tuscany on a journey that will, through the power of love, change all their lives.

The Verdict "If you were one of the many who adored Diane Lane in the 2003 hit, "Under The Tuscan Sun", then stand by, because you're in for another treat. This time around its Amanda Seyfried; the film is "Letters To Juliet" and, as was the case with "Under The Tuscan Sun", it's a film with more than just romance at its heart. Like its predecessor, the setting once again, is gorgeous Tuscany. This tale of re-uniting a love lost half a century ago, will have those who enjoy a 'feel good ending', in raptures. Helmed by director Gary Winick, who brought us "Tadpole", "Suddenly 30" & "Bride Wars"; "Letters To Juliet" is by definition: a chick flick. It boasts strong performances from its two female leads: rising star Amanda Seyfried and iconic British actress Vanessa Redgrave. Small screen will remember Seyfried for her TV roles as Lucinda Marie 'Lucy' Montgomery in "As the World Turns"; Lilly Kane in "Veronica Mars" and more recently, Sarah Henrickson in "Big Love". Seyfried first caught cinemagoers eyes when she was cast as Sophie in 2008's "Mamma Mia! The Movie". That led to her starring opposite Tatum Channing in "Dear John" (an adapted of the Nicholas Sparks book). Vanessa Redgrave C.B.E. is, like Dames Judi Dench and Maggy Smith, one of Britians national treasures. Her career, which began in the 1950's, spans seven decades. Her talent has been recognized with many awards including: an Oscar in 1978; two Cannes Film Festival awards (Best Actress 1966 & '69); two EMMY Awards (1981 & 2000); two Golden Globes (1978 & 2001) and a Tony Award. Her performance as Claire is classy and endearing. There is an Australian connection in the cast. Christopher Egan, who played Nick Smith in thirty five episodes of "Home And Away" (2000-2003), before heading to Los Angeles to further his career, gives a solid performance as Claire's grandson Charlie. Full credit must go to 2008 Pasinetti Award winning cinematographer Marco Pontecorvo ("My House In Umbria") for creating the beautiful imagery of this film. Only a fool would fail to recommend "Letters To Juliet". 4 STARS." The Production Team

Director Writers Producers Original Music Cinematography Film Editor Casting Production Design Art Direction by Set Decoration Costume Design

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Gary Winick Jose Rivera and Tim Sullivan Ellen Barkin/Mark Canton/Eric Feig Caroline Kaplan/Patrick Wachsberger Andrea Guerra Marco Pontecorvo Bill Pankow Béatrice Kruger/Ellen Lewis/Cindy Tolan Stuart Wurtzel Saverio Sammali Alessandra Querzola Nicoletta Ercole

Who Is Playing Who?

Amanda Seyfried Christopher Egan Vanessa Redgrave Gael García Bernal Fabio Testi Marcia DeBonis Giordano Formenti Paolo Arvedi Dario Conti Ivana Lotito Luisa Ranieri Marina Massironi idia Biondi ilena Vukotic Luisa De Santis

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Sophie Charlie Claire Victor Count Lorenzo Bartolini Lorraine Viticoltore Signor Ricci the Olive Farmer Cheese Supplier Young Girl Isabella Francesca Donatella Maria Angelina

Run Time 105 minutes Rated PG [AUST] Copyright ©2010 - Hoyts Distribution - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2010 The Movie Pages & impact Internet Services. All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian and International Copyright. Trademark Laws and Intellectual Property Rights apply.