Letters To Juliet (2010)

After suffering through shitty rom-com after shitty rom-com, I've begun to hate love itself. Low expectations are the key, and the key to enjoying this film. An unfulfilled writer goes to Verona with her fiance and ends up falling in love with a smug Englishman. He's there with his grandmother who's looking for the love she lost fifty years earlier. Amanda Seyfried is nicely understated, the liver lipped Christopher Egan is unappealing despite a sizable bulge, and Gael Garcia Bernal is so irritating he's worthy of a slow death. The best thing in this movie is seventy-three year-old Vanessa Redgrave. Her mere presence makes this not just watchable but even persuasive. God damn it, I ended up liking it. The first twenty minutes are rough, but once they get to Italy (all that scenery) and Miss Redgrave, it hits it's stride. By the way, whoever chose the insipid pop music soundtrack should be fisted without lube (it nearly ruins the movie). Corn, yes, but good corn.