Review of Romeo + Juliet

Authentically anchored by retaining Shakespeare's text, even inserting and reciprocating popular songs, high tragedy and comedy as per the source play, Baz Luhrmann's relentlessly paced adaptation, retitled as "Romeo + Juliet", nevertheless dispenses with wearisome, derivative reverence to the 1968 film version and opts for total modification, transposing the action to the present day, reimagining contemporary Venice as Verona Beach, home to pistol-wielding gang warfare, fast cars and network news.

Despite breaking with convention in several ways in terms of faithfulness to the story and polarising many critics on the basis of its visual flourishes and questionable casting choices, mass appeal was achieved through the exceptional performances of two young unknowns and established screen veterans, all of whom painstakingly deliver their lines with genuine conviction and earnestness. Luhrmann's decadent, visually innovative modernisation was calculatedly aimed at holding the attention of the spasmodic, easily bored MTV generation, thus facilitating the accessibility of the play for younger viewers wholly unfamiliar with the Bard's classic tragedy. What resulted was a fresh revision, a dazzlingly cinematic and hyperkinetic tour de force that remains volatile, romantic and immersive, functioning not only as flashy, unbridled entertainment, but also as a delightfully irreverent, edgy introduction to Shakespeare for the neophyte.