Gnomeo & Juliet

Getting through Gnomeo & Juliet is pretty dreary business. The pun in the title is the giveaway: This is Shakespeare’s tragedy enacted by computer-animated garden gnomes. On the Montague side is happy-go-lucky Gnomeo (voice by James McAvoy); on the other side of the fence, for Capulet, is spunky Juliet (Emily Blunt). They meet, they bond, they fall in love. They run away to “the old Lawrence place,” where a plastic lawn flamingo named Featherstone (Jim Cummings) flits around them jabbering in an outlandish Desi Arnaz accent about the joys of young love. But the pull of family loyalty drags them back, he to the side of his mother (Maggie Smith), she to her father (Michael Caine), as the war between the blue and red gnomes waxes hot. Gnomeo & Juliet has its cute moments, but it’s the cuteness of desperation. Characters, gags and plot turns come and go according to the whim of whatever writer was working on that page that day, then discarded without following through as the next writer’s ideas take over. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated G.