hughman55 You can not order the pre-fix menu at a 5 star restaurant and have delivered to your table a burger and fries. Cold rubbery fries. The concept of this film is enticing. The execution was not so successful. For as many liberties as were taken with Shakespeare's masterpiece one simple and useful one, would have been to change "Juliet" to "Julien". You wouldn't even have had to ruin the title to do this. Because the actor playing "Juliet" was a man, there seemed to be a concerted effort to not weaken, feminize, or subdue his demeanor. This produced a complete lack of polarity, or Ying and Yang, in the relationship which rendered the romance impotent. And so you have a very sincere attempt at a "Romeo and Juliet" that is devoid of tectonic passion between the two main characters. And they don't die in the end. This project came across, even at it's best moments, more as an open reading of the play than a rendering of what it in reality truly is, the greatest love story ever written. There are some excellent performances in this film. Josh Neff as Mercutio/Capulet, Adam Barrie as Friar Lawrence, Omar Madsen as the nurse, were powerful at moments when allowed by the direction. The actors for the title characters seemed hamstrung by either misdirection or unsuitability for the roles. In the end it didn't even matter that they didn't die tragically because there was no great loss of love. I'm not even sure that they survived to love at all. They seemed drawn to one another. That's not sufficient for a rendering of a Shakespeare classic on the margins of society. I think this could have been really amazing. But when Romeo and Juliet are not driven to defy everything in their lives for their love, their complete and consuming love is not battered by tragedy and death, and they do not die unnecessarily and tragically at the end, I'm really not sure what's left. It seemed here, not much.

gradyharp Alan Brown (Superheroes, Book of Love, etc) has adapted a poignant capsule of Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET and directs his version as a little film that is full of riches. Not only has he allowed Shakespeare's lines to be delivered intact but he has the courage to embellish their meaning by placing the story in a military academy, a move that has a lot of punch considering the recent advances in the military attitude toward gays. Brown very successfully mixes this contemporary all male setting with bits of contemporary dialog and music and academy activity with sports etc to offer a very different look at the tale of forbidden love, has cast a highly gifted cast of New York stage actors to play all the roles, and has the courage to make this all work quite successfully. As one PR summary puts it, 'When eight cadets are left behind at an isolated military high school, the greatest romantic drama ever written seeps out of the classroom and permeates their lives. Incorporating the original text of 'Romeo and Juliet,' YouTube videos, and lip-synced Indie rock music, Private Romeo takes us to a mysterious and tender place that only Shakespeare could have inspired.'Once the setting is established, we are privy to a classroom (English literature) where the men/boys are reciting Sjakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet and from there the readers take on the roles as they move outside the classroom. The extremely talented Seth Mumrich plays Romeo and his gifted costar in Broadway's WAR HORSE Matt Doyle is Juliet. Hale Appleman is given the combined roles of Mercutio and Lord Capulet, Sean Hudock shares both Benvolio and Lady Capulet, Adam Barrie is Friar Lawrence, Chris Bresky plays the Nurse, and the magnetic Bobby Moreno plays Tybalt. Of course each of these characters, being military academy pre-soldiers, has a common name and Alan Brown manages to intermix the reality of these students with the Shakespearean characters deftly. The love that Seth Mumrich and Matt Doyle display is very real and touching and while there is kissing here there is no other manifestation of Shakespeare's perfect but doomed love affair: this movie is for all audiences. After the 'tomb scene' and to bring us back into reality, the very talented Matt Doyle sings 'You made me love you' directly to the audience. A fine way to bring this experimental piece to an end.Everything about this film works well - the Shakespeare excerpts are well molded to provide the essential story and are delivered expertly by the cast, the variations of the military academy theme (especially in these times) is a powerful statement, and the use of contemporary entertainment media enhances the story very well. This is a smart, beautifully acted, well devised and delivered 'update' of one of the oldest love stories in history. Grady Harp

urent I recently rented this film after having discovered it entirely by accident. I admit that I am a Romeo and Juliet Junkie, but I am always open to new settings and the like. The more I delved into the film, the more attached I got to these characters. These guys were outstanding in their own way, how they played the characters, how they conveyed the poetry and making it seem completely natural. Seth Numrich and Matt Doyle perfectly conveyed the romance of Seth/Romeo and Glenn/Juliet. While some people may easily be bothered by a gay interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, I had no issues/problems with it at all. The chemistry between those two was so sweet and innocent, I could not help but be drawn into the story. For me, even if I was bothered, the poetry and the story are all that matters! Doyle in particular makes a very strong Juliet, standing up to the bullying Hale Appleman's Lord Capulet/Mercutio (also outstanding). The film is beautifully shot, with close-ups on the lover's hands as they hold and touch one another. There are plenty of other tender moments throughout. The setting is also very sparse, with the empty hallways and courtyards, like the stage is waiting for the tragedy to unfold. I won't say anything about the ending, other than I was oddly satisfied. Somehow it works. And this movie does too. I cannot wait to add it to my Shakespeare collection.

walypala I have a couple of pet hates when it comes to Shakespeare: 1. Forced constructs (a lá Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It set in feudal Japan - WTF!?!) 2. Americans (I know it is harsh but I have yet to see an American production that I've not cringed at - Did you see Ethan Hawke in Hamlet?) And then along comes Private Romeo to force a group of American military cadets into Romeo and Juliet.Shakespeare, forced context, Americans.Shakespeare, forced military academy context, hot semi-naked Americans.So I went. I was unprepared. The performances here completely disarmed me. The cast, led by (Seth Numrich - incidentally, Julliard's youngest ever drama student) is phenomenal. Their command of Shakespeare's words is masterful, finding the perfect balance between the flow of natural dialogue and the meter of the verse.Hale Appleman is especially good as Mercutio, and he relishes the early scenes, absolutely smashing the Queen Mab speech. Chris Bresky, too, who takes on the nurse's role has a lot of fun with his role, aided by some clever set up. But, in truth, it is hard to fault anyone in the cast.And the context? That's a bit more tricky.The film kicks off with the students doing a read through of Romeo and Juliet in their class. Thankfully, Brown moves away from the standard 'lives mirror performance' format, as the cadets start to slip into verse with little warning. The military academy works as a setting because the action that is taking place isn't strictly 'Romeo and Juliet'. Shakespeare's dialogue is used to accentuate the action rather than drive it. It soon becomes clear that the masked ball is not going to be a masked ball and that daughters are not going to be girls. Importantly, there are no rival houses, they are mentioned but they are not the cause of the tragedy here, that role is taken up by the undercurrent of homophobia and standard high school pack mentality.If you accept this construct then the world of Private Romeo maintains a concrete internal logic. The cadets can change roles because the speech is more important than the character. Director Alan Brown cleverly signals character changes by flashing back to the classroom scene, re-introducing the boys in the new role.Coming to the film with a solid grasp of the play will certainly benefit. Brown has pared the play back to an extremely fast moving 98 minutes and he has used many techniques to keep the pace moving. Characters are excised or collapsed into single characters, actors double up on roles, and whole plot lines are removed or altered. This is nothing new in producing Shakespeare but it is certainly less common producing his works for the screen.SPOILERS I won't deny that Brown has taken some liberties with the play. The tweaks that Baz Lurhmann made in his excellent 1996 version have been taken a step further here, with both the boys surviving. I didn't find this as jarring as I would have expected. Following on from Tybalt and Mercutio's fight (where neither die) the altered ending maintains the relationship between the traditional play and the play on the screen. Brown's decision also sidestepped the propensity of gays to die at the end of films, a comment in itself.END SSPOILERS There are of course choices that didn't work especially well; a series of lip-synced YouTube videos filmed by the cadets were effective but oddly placed and a song by 'Juliet' over the films credits needs to be hacked off the end (and will be once it reaches my DVD-r).Private Romeo is a fluid, astonishingly acted and relevant addition to the library of 'Romeo and Juliet' on film. Brown's film can sit proudly next to Zeffirelli and Lurhmann as an adaptation that has captured the true beauty of the text and adolescent love.Do not miss!