The film is set in Renaissance Italy, the village of Verona. Lord Capulet (Damien Lewis) schemes to marry off his teenaged daughter Juliet (Hailee Steinfeld) to rich noble Count Paris (Tom Wisdom). But instead she marries Romeo (Douglas Booth), a dashing young man from a good family. Unfortunately, that family, the Montagues, are the hated rivals to the Capulets.
Thus, Tybalt Capulet (Ed Westwick) is determined to provoke Romeo into a sword fight to the death. Because it is a story, Tybalt dies instead, along with Mercutio Montague (Christian Cooke). Romeo is now a murderer, and must flee the town to save his life.
Friar Laurence (Paul Giamatti), who earlier married Romeo, concocts a preposterous plan to fake Juliet's death to allow her to reunite with Romeo and escape bigamy with Count Paris. The plan goes well at first, but eventually goes awry, ending in our leads' suicides.
How others will see it. I was surprised to learn that this handsome production was both a critical and financial bust. At Rotten Tomatoes, it has a lowly 24% fresh assessment. At imdb.com, it has a below par 5.8 out of 10 user rating. The movie barely earned 1M in American theaters, and was ignored by film festivals except for the efforts of Abel Korzeniowski, which won Film Score of the Year at something called the International Film Music Critics Award.
The major criticism of the movie is that although Shakespeare's plot remains intact (alas, no happy ending) the Great Bard's lines have mostly been rewritten to make them easier on contemporary ears. Though the most famous lines, about Ethiope ears, the the christening of roses, sweet sorrows, and larks and loons, all remain for the viewer to check off the list along with the requisite body count.
A secondary, but constant, critique is that Hailee Steinfeld was not up to the role of Juliet. But everyone seems to agree that Paul Giamatti does just fine as Friar Laurence.
Another hurdle for the film is the lengthy shadow cast by the 1968 Zeffirelli version, which despite the 1996 remake starring millenial icons Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, remains the most respected of the many screen adaptations.
How I felt about it. Indeed, the Zeffirelli movie is definitive, and since it covers the same ground as the 2013 version, why watch the latter? Because it is a good movie. True, Steinfeld isn't half the actor as Douglas Booth, but if we can forgive the miscast of that key role, otherwise it's good work all around.
As discussed, the chief criticism of the movie was the liberties it took with the lines of the source play, written four centuries ago. Since the English language has evolved since then, only those steeped in the play can keep up with the original dialogue, which has its teenaged characters saying stuff like "the measure done, I'll watch her place of stand" and "bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud."
To such sentences, I say "Fie!" Is Shakespeare so sacred that his text be given Talmudic treatment? I don't think so, and the same goes for the plot, whch has Count Paris so obsessed with his would-be teen bride that he guards her tomb just in case Romeo shows up to kiss the corpse.