Letters to Juliet

An American tourist in Verona (Amanda Seyfried) impulsively answers a lovelorn letter left at “Juliet’s wall” 50 years ago, and her reply brings the now-70-year-old woman (Vanessa Redgrave) to Italy on a romantic quest, very much against the wishes of her protective grandson (Christopher Egan). A Martian who had never seen a movie could probably predict where this one was going from the moment the fetching heroine meets the hunky grandson, and neither director Gary Winick nor writers Jose Rivera and Tim Sullivan bother to spring any surprises on their plodding way to an excruciatingly foregone conclusion. What makes the movie an acceptable time killer is the appeal of the players (including Gael García Bernal as Seyfried’s pleasantly neglectful boyfriend) and the always reliably gorgeous Tuscan scenery.