December 22, 2024

Movie Review: “Rosaline” is an enjoyable, light and silly Shakespeare detour

Let’s save you some time. “Rosaline” starring Emmy winner, Kaitlyn Dever, is like someone put “Romeo and Juliet”, “Ten Things I Hate About You”, and “The Great” in a blender.

And if you’ve seen or understand each of those ingredients, then you’ll know right here and now whether you’ll enjoy the film or not.

Being that I do enjoy those ingredients, then I thought the movie was just fine.

This is the story of Romeo’s side-chick Rosaline. Who he loved, until he met his cousin, Juliet. Dever gets to have some fun here as the title character, with a completely different turn from her award winning “Dopesick” outing and more of a return to “Booksmart” territory (both are great). We also get Minnie Driver and Bradley Whitford collecting an easy paycheck here in supporting roles. Always great to see them.

The movie is actually spoken modern English, with slang and burns in tact. This lets the jokes land a little better. And Kyle Allen, who plays Romeo, looks straight up like Heath Ledger in this movie. No lie.

Director Karen Maine probably could have cut a little more. And the film does take a lot of creative liberties with the ending of a tale we’ve heard a hundred times, and it does get might sloppy down the homestretch. But I think that might actually be the point.

Still, the main draw here is Dever and she continues to stack up a resume of work involving some really strong performances. Its because of her that Rosaline succeeds.

Rosaline

GRADE: B-

Rated: PG 13

Running Time: 1 hour 37 minutes

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