Letters to Juliet

Letters to Juliet is a 2010 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan, Gael García Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero. This was the final film of director Gary Winick before his death on February 27, 2011. The film was released theatrically in North America and other countries on May 14, 2010. The idea for the film was inspired by the 2006 non-fiction book Letters to Juliet, by Lise Eve Friedman and Ceil Jann Friedman, which chronicles the phenomenon of letter-writing to Shakespeare's most famous romantic character. Plot Sophie is a young American woman who works for The New Yorker as a fact checker. She goes on a pre-honeymoon with her chef fiancé Victor to Verona, Italy. Victor is unmoved by the romance of Italy and uses his time constructively to conduct research for his soon-to-open restaurant, often neglecting Sophie. As Sophie explores Verona, she learns that thousands of "letters to Juliet" are left in Juliet's courtyard each year, written by women from all over the world seeking comfort and advice in love; the letters are collected and answered by a group called the "Secretaries of Juliet". Intrigued, Sophie asks to join them. Sophie later discovers an unanswered letter from a young girl named Claire Smith written in 1957, begging Juliet for guidance on her relationship with a boy named Lorenzo Bartolini. On a whim, Sophie answers the letter, and within a few days the now elderly Claire arrives in Verona with her barrister grandson Charlie. Claire and Sophie take an instant liking to each other, while Sophie and Charlie do not get along. Claire reveals that in her youth, she made plans to run away with Lorenzo but then stood him up out of fear, and while she eventually married another man, she never forgot Lorenzo. Now widowed, Claire has decided to follow the advice given in Sophie's reply and seek out her long-lost love, despite Charlie's objections to the idea. Sophie goes along with them, hoping Claire's story might kickstart her writing career and is genuinely interested in the story's outcome. Sophie discovers that there are seventy-four Lorenzo Bartolinis in the area, and the group decides to visit as many as possible in the hope of finding the right one. During this time, Sophie and Charlie grow closer. After many days of searching, they find one Lorenzo who has died, saddening Claire. A frustrated Charlie lashes out at Sophie and accuses her of not knowing what real loss is.