Letters to Juliet

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Letters to Juliet's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Letters to Juliet completed by The Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 3 May 2010.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

ACCM review

This review of the movie Letters to Juliet contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Every year thousands of visitors flock to Verona in Italy to visit the famous Capulet House and leave letters to Juliet in the wall beneath the balcony. Most of these letters are answered by the secretaries of Juliet, a voluntary organisation and part of the Juliet Club. Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) travels to Verona with her fiancé Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal) on what she had hoped would be a romantic early honeymoon. However she finds herself spending a lot of time alone as Victor pursues his business contacts. Sophie becomes intrigued with the Juliet Club and begins to assist them to answer letters.

While working with the Juliet Club Sophie discovers a letter written 50 years earlier wedged behind a loose brick. She writes to Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), the author of the letter, and is surprised when Claire arrives in Verona with her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan). To Charlie’s dismay, Sophie has inspired Claire to search for the long lost love, Lorenzo, whom she left in Italy 50 years earlier. Finding him will be a challenge, as there are hundreds of men with that name in Italy, but Claire is undeterred.  Sophie persuades Claire to let her accompany her and, together with Charlie, they travel the beautiful Tuscany area in their quest to find Lorenzo.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Relationships; loss of parents

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

Nothing of concern

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Some children may be worried by a scene in which Charlie falls from a vine as he tries to climb up to a balcony, He falls onto the grass beneath and is unhurt.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

• Charlie mentions that his parents were killed in a car accident and that his Grandmother has brought him up.
• Sophie tells how her mother left her and her father when she was only nine

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film.

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

None of concern

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

• Some passionate kissing between Sophie and Charlie

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• Drinking at a number of functions

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• Oh my god
• shit

The movie's message

Letters to Juliet is a classic romantic movie set in the beautiful Tuscany countryside.  The cinematography is wonderful and so is Vanessa Redgrave as Claire.

The main messages from this movie are that you are never too old for love and that you should take hold of opportunities when they come along.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• the importance of love
• following your heart
  
  

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as

• how putting a career first can jeopardise a relationship
• beliefs about relationships before marriage