top of page

Review: "Rosaline"

Jennifer Green

This twist on the classic play adds characters, alters the ending, and imposes contemporary sensibilities, resulting in an entertaining but uneven romp.


By mixing sumptuous period wardrobes and settings with modern characters, diction, and music, Rosaline differs from its contemporaries in the genre -- films like Enola Holmes and The Princess, which also foist a blatantly feminist perspective onto fairy tales and classic narratives.


The novel approach mostly works, thanks to a charming lead cast (Dever, Teale, Merced, and Allen, coiffed to look like a young Heath Ledger). Much of the film's best humor involves the supporting cast: the fathers who begrudgingly accept their anachronistically progressive daughters (Bradley Whitford and Christopher McDonald), a nurse called Nurse whose actual nursing ability is ignored (Minnie Driver), and a slacker/stoner courier played by Moxie's Nico Hiraga.

Despite the twists in plot and character, not to mention Rosaline's My Best Friend's Wedding-style plotting against Romeo and Juliet, the storyline is ultimately predictable.


The film also has some uneven pacing and feels bogged down at times by its own formula of superimposing contemporary archetypes and sass onto a 16th century story.


The gay bestie in particular feels gratuitous, as does a topless scene starring Teale. Allen's Romeo comically turns out not to be the sharpest sword, a blowhard who repeats his few lines of romantic poetry to each new love interest.


It's that kind of silliness that makes Rosaline fun and best enjoyed by not taking it too seriously.

 

Read the full review on Common Sense Media.

Images courtesy of Hulu.

Comments


 

A note about privacy: This web is hosted on the Wix.com platform. Wix.com provides us with the online platform that allows us to share our content you. We do not share personal information with third-parties nor do we store information we collect about your visit to this blog for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at any time by modifying your Internet browser's settings. We are not responsible for the republishing of the content found on this blog on other web sites or media without our permission. All art and posters from films used on this site are sourced from distributors where possible, and always represent official art released for press coverage of films. Other images are original. Please contact me directly with questions. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.

bottom of page