Well, it’s nice but I didn’t like it much. The first time it’s nicer because of the novelty, the second time it’s much less nice. I didn’t much like the main love story between Sophie and Charlie, and also the ending. Personally, I liked her first boyfriend much more than the last; sure they spent a lot of time together, because they had completely different interests, but I loved how passionate he was about his work, his enthusiasm, he was nice.
The story:
Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) wants to be a writer, but for now she only check facts - and the way they show this at the beginning of the movie is rather... :-/ she just calls a bunch of people on the phone until someone tells her that yes, he was there, he saw it all and it happened just like that, and voilà, she says she’s 100% sure... :-/ I mean, really? Anyway, this was only to show what she does, very quickly because it’s not really important.
She has a fiancee, Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal), a chef very passionate about his work. They plan a trip to Italy and they go to Verona, but then he takes her to taste wines and cheese and she gets bored, so they decide that he’ll go seeing all the food suppliers he wants and she’ll visit Verona on her own.
She watches as girls leave letters or notes at Juliet’s wall, and then when everyone goes away (so early, why would they go away so early?) a woman comes collecting all the notes and letters. Sophie is curious so she follows her, stating very honestly “I followed you” and she meets the “secretaries of Juliet” (Luisa Ranieri, Marina Massironi, Lidia Biondi, Milena Vukotic), some women that reply to the letters. I had heard already of the secretaries of Juliet, so this wasn’t really a shock.
I’m glad to say that the Italian people she meets are really Italian, and the secretaries are actresses I know.
She’s invited to stay for dinner, and here there’s the stereotype of the old woman offended by her refusal to stay, saying she can’t stand a no, stuff like that :-/ Anyway, she mentions her fiancee so they let her go but is given a dessert to take with her. Victor is enthusiast, wants to know her and wants her to teach him something (the old woman speaks English.. I mean, yes it’s possible, why not), so Sophie spends her time with the secretaries, and she finds an old letter behind a stone that falls down, a letter from 50 years ago: an English girl in love with an Italian boy, but then she went back home without meeting him. Sophie is moved by the letter and says the most annoying thing of the movie: “I have to write back” ... well no, you don’t have to. Maybe you want to and you’re asking if you can, but to say that you have to daring them to say no is very arrogant. Had she said I want to, can I? they would have said yes anyway, but at least it would have been more polite.
It takes her a lot of time to write that letter... Victor leaves for a wine auction in Livorno and Sophie stays with them, until an English guy, Charlie (Christopher Egan) comes in asking who wrote that letter to his grandma. Wow, he found them so easily.
She’s excited, but he’s angry at her because now his grandma has come to Italy intending to see her lost love again, and he’s afraid that it’ll end badly and she’ll suffer, which is very understandable, but she doesn’t want to understand it. She follows him to meet his grandma Claire (Vanessa Redgrave). Claire meets all the secretaries, and tells them her story and that she’s come here to find her Lorenzo, her love at first sight that she wanted to marry but got scared because her parents wouldn’t have approved so she ran away home; she wants to tell him that she’s sorry she didn’t go to meet him.
Sophie wants to follow the story, so she asks Claire if she can join them in her search for Lorenzo, so she can write about it.
They go together. I thought it was incredible that they muted a word in the Italian song, it wasn’t such a bad word to deserve censor, would they censor the word jerk? It was Un giorno così by 883, I love it so I knew instantly that there was a word missing :-p (when it says basta un giorno così a cancellare 120 giorni ‘stronzi’ e basta un giorno così a cacciarmi via tutti gli sbattimenti che ogni giorno sembran sempre di più... ecc ecc).
Sophie thinks it’s all very romantic, Charlie is annoyed by it all. Sophie says that her mother abandoned her when she was nine, later on Charlie will say that his parents died when he was ten.
The first Lorenzo was not the right one, but Sophie insists on continuing and she finds that there are a lot of Lorenzo Bartolini in the area of Siena.
She says that checking things is her job, they only need a process of elimination. She points a lot of Lorenzos on a map and they start checking them out. Charlie thinks it’s madness, but he’s the driver. Sophie already checks him out when he goes swimming.
One (Angelo Infanti) tells her to come if she doesn’t find the one she’s looking for, the next one leaves Claire horrified she doesn’t even talk to him, another one (Fabio Testi) is quite charming, telling her “I would have never let you go” but he’s not the right one.
Charlie and Sophie up until now have kept fighting all the time, he tells her that she brings out the worst in him, but they take a walk together, talk a lot, and things start to change. He says he’s single, after an on/off relationship with a certain Patricia.
They continue their search, one Lorenzo after the other.
Sophie tells Charlie that she believes in fate and she’s very happy to be there... with Claire, and when they drive the song Sono bugiarda can be heard :-p Coincidence? Mah.
The next Lorenzo is dead, and Charlie starts getting worried again that it might end badly.
Charlie and Sophie talk a lot, watch the stars together, and he kisses her.. she feels bad because she has a fiancee and walks away. Grandma sees them and smiles.
While driving, they see the vines of their favourite wine so they go check it out, and Claire sees her Lorenzo as he was when he was young. Indeed he’s called Lorenzo Bartolini, like his father, like his grandfather (rolling eyes). Now Claire gets scared, saying she was only 15 back then, she wants to go away but right then the right Lorenzo (Franco Nero, Django himself) comes on his horse and his grandson informs him about them asking about him.
He’s shocked and moved, and hugs her and takes them home. He lost his wife, just like she lost her husband. They are both single now so they get together.
She wants to go back now that the search’s ended, and Lorenzo (middle one) drives her back. Claire tells Charlie not to let her go, so he drives after her but when he gets there he sees her with Victor and goes away without showing himself.
She goes back to New York, her story will be published and she’s happy about that, but then she receives a note inviting her to Claire’s wedding. She leaves Victor - quite a nice scene, he sends everyone away remaining alone with her in the kitchen because he had sensed what she wanted to say, he doesn’t want to break up but he knows that he can’t change because that’s who he is, so they hug and she leaves.
At the wedding, she finds that Charlie is with a certain Patricia and her world crumbles. All the secretaries have been invited, which was such a nice touch.
The wedding is in church, can they really do it so quickly? Usually weddings are organised one year before, more or less...
Anyway, they get married, Claire reads her letter out loud where Sophie encouraged her to do what she did, then Sophie runs away... more or less, actually for some reason she goes on the balcony to play Juliet. She cries, tells him she’s single now, but it’s too late because he’s back with Patricia and that’s heartbreaking because she loves him.... and only now he thinks about telling her that this Patricia is not ‘that’ Patricia, this one is his cousin and he’s still single too.
He climbs up to reach her, there’s a long boring speech then he falls down so she goes to him and they kiss and it’s the end, just like that.
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