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Awful

posted 11 years ago by pennilayne
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This made me cringe. A few decent performances but Hailee Steinfeld ruined Shakespeare's poetry with a terrible emotionless performance that seemed like she was merely reading the words from the script not knowing what they mean. Why cast her? She's not even that beautiful. Amanda Seyfried perhaps? Emma Watson? Evan Rachel wood, Sara Paxton, Dakota fanning, Emmy Rossum, Maia Mitchell, Saoirse Ronan, Shayleine Woodley (all much,much better actresses and far more beautifu) I know some of them are a bit too old as she's really supposed to be 14, but it doesn't matter, they all look young enough to be a teenager and this whole film was so disappointing that would be the least of its concerns. Juliete is supposed to have a unique
memorizing beauty. The guy who played romeo wasn't fantastic but much more talented than her and much better looking. Just so disappointing. Don't remake Shakespeare's work if you can't do it right. It took me a bit to like the modern romeo and Juliet but it won't me over with its stellar performances and I'm a huge Baz. fan anyway. Claire Danes, was by far, the best on screen Juliet to date. She was incredible. I was excited for this and it bored me to tears and I cringed and the adaptation of the script and how the lines were delivered. Ed Westwick was fantastic, I can't wait to see him in more stuff. He's a talented guy. Wow, even that girl from gossip girl, what's her name, the one who plays Blair Waldorf. She is a great actress, and could have done a better job as well. I was also extremely disappointed in who they cast as mercutio. He's one of my favorite characters, he's supposed to be goofy and fun. That guy was a snoozefest!!!!! And Paris is supposed to be handsome and charming albeit overbearing and he also was not handsome or charismatic. Arghhhh lol.

r performance was better looks wouldn't matter as much but to be average on both I wonder why she was cast?? So many other actresses could have done better. And no, not Jennifer Lawrence. She's not a Juliet.

[–] Bloodfordracula 9 years ago

They cast her because she has long dark hair like Olivia Hussey in the '68 Romeo and Juliet. They were trying to recapture the 1968 version's magic by setting it in the correct time and place too - 15th century Verona. They failed miserably.

[–] atomicseasoning 9 years ago

Supposedly Lily Collins was originally cast as Juliet, but then she landed the role of 'Snow White' in 'Mirror Mirror' (and the role of 'Clary' in that 'Mortal Instruments: City of Bones'/Cassie Clare novel movie) so she dropped out of R&J and they cast Hailee because she was the right age, had the right look, & had been nominated for an Oscar in 2010 for her role in the True Grit remake.

Funny that Hailee was an Oscar nominee, yet when it came to actually performing Shakespeare, she was barely at the level of your typical teen actor in a high school play. She may have improved some since 2011 or 12 & Romeo & Juliet, but perhaps Shakespeare isn't her forte a well?

[–] greenfairyXO 9 years ago

That's interesting. Lily Collins would have been a good choice as well. I could see that. If I were her I would have dropped out of Mirror, Mirror to do Shakespeare are you kidding me!!! Maybe they figured the others would make more money because they read the script saw the adaptation and hated it as much as I did :) :)

I forgot Hailee won an Oscar. I never saw True Grit. I think sometimes child actresses get worse as they get older. You'd hope they would get better. Dakota Fanning is a perfect example of someone who was amazing as a child actor and got worse----but she's not horrible or anything. The monotone thing works or her. She actually wouldn't have been good for this-- I retract that from my original post.

But yeah maybe Shakespeare isn't her thing, but I feel like it should be every Oscar nominated or Oscar winners thing. Ya know? lol

[–] JelenaG890 9 years ago

Hailee didn't win, she was only nominated. And, as good as she was in True Grit, I think it was a fluke. She has been absolutely awful in every film I've seen her in since, from "Pitch Perfect 2" to "Romeo and Juliet."