'Romeo and Juliet' is back in town

By Laksmi Pamuntjak-Djohan

JAKARTA (JP): Make no mistake, the updated version of the Bard's most famous love story is not for everyone. Still dizzied by the success of his hip crowd-pleaser Strictly Ballroom, writer-director Baz Luhrmann audaciously calls the film William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, when in effect it looks more like Bastardization of the Bard. Transposing the 16th-century material to modern-day Verona Beach, a Catholo-Hispanic "created world" which is part Veracruz part Mexico City, swords are now replaced by guns, horses by roaring convertibles, Elizabethan attire by floral Hawaiian shirts and punk hairdos.

The sheer desperation with which it tries to sell Shakespeare to Generation X is sure to depress Shakespeare traditionalists or those who have seen Franco Zefirelli's exquisite 1968 version with the luminous Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey in the title roles. The first 30 minutes is almost unwatchable, as Luhrmann takes us on a bumpy ride soaked with effervescent bad taste, vulgar humor, rapid-fire MTV editing, garbled American accents, riotous visuals, and excessive religious iconography reminiscent of Madonna's world-view.

The Bard's banter is hardly recognizable, mumbled and hollered by many an untrained mouth, and drowned out by music that hyper- kinetically jumps from up-tempo rock to Latin to punk to children's choir to Mozart to a love ballad by Des'ree. It is pure sacrilege.

For those who aren't familiar with the story, Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Juliet (Claire Danes), of the violently feuding Montague and Capulet families, secretly fall in love and marry. This leads to a duel between Juliet's cousin Tybalt (John Leguizamo) and Romeo's best buddy, Mercutio (Harold Perrineau). Two fatalities and a banished Romeo result. And when Juliet's nurse (Miriam Margolyes) and Romeo's mentor, Father Laurence (Pete Postlethwaite) try to patch things up, tragedy beckons.

But here we have an adaptation so bizarre that we have Romeo smoking cigarettes and shooting pool with his cousin Benvolio (Dash Mihok); where Mercutio is a black, RuPaul-type drag queen donning a silver miniskirt, a platinum wig and heavy lipstick; where Tybalt is a snarling, overacting Frito Bandito all duded up like Zorro in black, sporting leather boots with three-inch silver heels, and speaks all his lines like a munchkin; where Juliet's approved suitor, Paris (Paul Rudd) is a smirking, JFK- type yuppie who is also Time's Bachelor of the Year; where Capulet (Paul Sorvino) is a pasta-accented, overstuffed mafia boss; where Capulet's wife (Diane Venora) is a fluttering, over- the-top Southern belle; where Juliet's nurse is a bubbly Latina who insists on calling the two star-crossed lovers "Romao" and "Huliet"; and where good Father Laurence has a crucifix tattooed on his back and cheekily lets his local boys choir cut loose on Prince's song When Doves Cry. West Side Story is staid by comparison. You either want to get up and leave, or stick it out because you know it's just one colossal joke.

Following the film's first image of a television screen, featuring a news anchorwoman introducing the events ("In fair Verona ..."), we are treated to a quick-cut montage, liberally splashed with handy subtitles ("The Capulet's mansion" ... etc.) to set up the scene. Then we have the first Hong Kong spaghetti western-style confrontation between the two warring clans, set at a gas station. From the time bullets start spraying with Tybalt flying through the air in tacky slow motion, there is scarcely time to breathe before we barrel into the costume ball where Luhrmann launches a visual blitzkrieg that assaults the senses in no way that other movies have ever done. All this before Romeo and Juliet ever share a scene.

Yet at the point they meet, something oddly wondrous happens. Even though Luhrmann tries his best to rein in a horse that is completely out of control, Shakespeare inevitably takes over, telling its own celebrated tale which, behind all the retro trimmings, is vintage Shakespeare. Gradually, the visual overkill tones itself down, and gone is the painfully forced slapstick, as if through a force over which it has no control. Rising at the core is the magnetic chemistry between Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, which renders Shakespeare's emotional center somewhat beautifully intact.

When the two first gaze transfixed at each other through the transparent panes of a large aquarium, the whole story suddenly falls into place, resulting in a surprisingly respectful second half. The scene, so beautiful in its quiet observation, has a lovely, heart-stopping lyricism whose magic is only attributable to the genius of the Bard himself. When Juliet dances with Paris under Romeo's gaze, unable to refrain from giggling, the sheer exuberance of love at first sight almost makes you weep. Elevating dewy innocence and fresh-faced sincerity to new heights, not many films have so poignantly rendered the moment when two souls unite.

The two young actors, quite simply the finest of their generation, are electrifying. That they can rise so high above the grotesque commotion surrounding them and transport us to a different world is almost inconceivable. Being the only "normal" characters in this film surely helps, but they bring so much more into their characters. DiCaprio's Romeo is glorious of face and limb, once carefree, then lovelorn, now raged, then ecstatic. He is Romeo. Danes' Juliet flits from girlish, wise, cheeky, and sensuous, and despite her tendency to flatten out her lines, she is breathtaking in the celebrated "What's in a name?" soliloquy. A rare combination of strength and fragility, she exudes the tranquility which pretty much saves the film.

Irony

In fact, with them at the heart of the story, all the other momentous scenes -- Romeo and Juliet's bed scene; Mercurio's and Tybalt's death; Romeo's sessions with Father Laurence; Juliet's heartbreak inflicted by her enraged parents; the irony of the crucial message gone haywire; and the final parting scene -- ooze conviction. Pete Postlethwaite also adds weight and dignity beyond his post-modernist garb, being the only classically- trained actor in this motley cast.

Problems still prevail, to be sure. For a start, the plot simply isn't believable by contemporary standards. Romeo is sentenced to "banishment"? In a trashed Winnebago in the middle of nowhere? Why doesn't Juliet just run away from home? Why can't the message be faxed or e-mailed rather than delivered "post-haste"? Is it likely that Romeo and Juliet want to get married after only kissing a few times? Hell, they might not even be virgins to start with.

Be that as it may, the sheer outlandishness of this movie only makes sense as a patchwork of modern eclecticism, destined perhaps for cult classic status. If you can sit out the calamitous first half and the distasteful epilogue, you may just revel in the sweet irresistibility of the doomed lovers. It is definitely this year's most unlikely, yet oddly affecting movie.