Letters To Juliet (2010)

An aspiring writer (Amanda Seyfried) is on vacation with her fiance (Gael Garcia Bernal) in Verona, Italy when she finds a letter written over 50 years ago by a distressed English teenage girl in love with an Italian boy she must abandon. When the Englishwoman (Vanessa Redgrave) comes to Italy many decades later with her stodgy grandson (Christopher Egan) to seek out the Italian boy she loved, the writer decides to accompany them on their quest. Directed by Gary Winick (TADPOLE), this unabashedly romantic tale is fairly predictable but if you're a hopeless romantic, you're likely to drop all pretense and revel in it. For the rest of you, there's the gorgeous Italian scenery and landscape. Seyfried is an attractive and likable screen presence but it's the glorious Redgrave who spins gold out of the most mundane dialogue. The film takes on an added poignancy if you know the real life history of Redgrave and Franco Nero (who plays the Italian boy as an adult). With Oliver Platt and Luisa Ranieri.