Rosaline

Rosaline is a delight from start to finish, a brisk, bright-eyed, and inventive romantic comedy with constituent parts that probably shouldn’t work this well together but do.

Tapping into the twin markets of A) lovers of rom-coms and B) recovering English majors, “Rosaline” promotes a fleetingly mentioned “Romeo and Juliet” character front and center, then builds a very clever and breezy movie around her. The result is a welcome starring showcase for Kaitlyn Dever more likely to prosper in the hamlet of Hulu than it would have fared in the province of theaters.

Played by Kaitlyn Dever, this Rosaline is very mad indeed (why shouldn’t she be?), but the always-winning actress helps guide a prickly footnote into delightful territory. One part coming-of-age tale, one part literary reconsideration, and all totally fun, Rosaline proves there’s still plenty to mine from the classic canon, with lively twists.

Rosaline gets some things absolutely right—the casting of Dever, the use of music to lampoon genre clichés, its creative point of view—but it misses the mark it establishes for itself. It’s a misguided work that highlights the insincerities that have emerged in Hollywood’s recent charge towards “inclusion” and “diversity.”

A winning cast, mostly drawn from the ranks of Gen Z, ensures that Rosaline’s spurned, sulky plans to steal Romeo back from Juliet can be fun.

You’d think with the director of “Yes, God, Yes” (Karen Maine) behind the camera, this comedy would take flight. Too much of what’s here stops just short of paying off with a big laugh. Blame the script or the tentative players (aside from Deaver, none of the younger cast members knows how to stick a punchline), but for all its intended charm and hilarity, Rosaline always settles for “ish.”

The engine of this movie is snark, and Dever, overtaxed with carrying the comedy, brings a dauntlessness to the role, even during more daft moments.

Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In an attempt to milk more out of Shakespeare's canon, this film presents a variation on Romeo and Juliet. The title character (played without much snap by Kaitlyn Dever) was Romeo's love…until he met Juliet. So, she decides to get in the middle. Like many of the modern re-creations of the Bard, they've modernized some of the language and music. Sadly, the dialogue lacks any punch and there's seldom an amusing moment. The pace keeps it from being too dull, but otherwise it's a rather plain romance.

The idea of this reinvention is simply to seek to amuse and entertain the young audience it is aimed at, and it's certainly not interested in doing anything else. That was the idea I had in my head before I started watching it and this was 100% confirmed once I finished it. When a piece of content is only meant to work only in its runtime, it's ridiculous to think it will leave an impression beyond that.