Letters To Juliet Parent Guide

Do you believe true love can last forever? Well, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) likes to think it can. Even though her job as a fact verifier for The New Yorker magazine demands that she deal in absolutes, in her heart she is still a romantic.

Her own love life is also a mix of sentiment and sensibility. Engaged to Victor (Gael García Bernal), an up-and-coming chef about to open his own restaurant, Sophie books a pre-wedding honeymoon in Italy knowing he will be too busy for a holiday once the new business gets going.

Unfortunately, she neglects to foresee how distracting a country full of fine food will be for the passionate cook. So while he goes to vineyards and wine auctions, she goes sightseeing, starting with a visit to a courtyard in Verona where Shakespeare’s legendary Juliet was supposed to have lived. While there she witnesses modern day star-crossed lovers leaving letters addressed to Juliet about their tales of woe.

Because Sophie has secret dreams of being a journalist, the investigative reporter in her takes an interest in what happens to this correspondence. Discovering each note is answered by a group of advice givers who call themselves Juliet’s secretaries, the young American asks if she can write a story about their job. The task becomes even more interesting when Sophie finds a fifty-year-old letter and is allowed to craft a reply to its author.

Although she speculates about what may have happened to this Claire Smith over the last half century, she is surprised when the now elderly woman (Vanessa Redgrave) shows up chauffeured by her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan). Inspired by Sophie’s response, Claire has decided to search for her long lost “Romeo”, much to Charlie’s chagrin. Excited about their quest, Sophie asks if she can join them.

As the trio sets out on this scavenger hunt, they find different things than what they went looking for, like varying views on life, love, sorrow and unrequited dreams. Along the way Sophie starts questioning the strength of her own affection and how much she has in common with her fiancé.

While Letters to Juliet plays out exactly as expected, it is a pleasant journey across the beautiful countryside of Italy. And there are only a few potholes to concern parents. These include frequent depictions of drinking (but never to drunkenness), an implied sexual relationship between the betrothed couple, portrayals of kissing, mild profanities and terms of deity used as expletives, as well as one crude sexual finger gesture. Despite these bumps, the story offers the hope that love truly can survive, despite life’s many detours.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Kerry Bennett is interested in media from both a journalist and parent perspective. Along with authoring articles for several family-oriented publications, she has written for Parent Previews for over 15 years. As a parent herself, she believes parents play a powerful role in teaching media literacy in their homes.