William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (Leonardo DiCaprio)

REVIEW
Can Shakespeare appeal to the MTV crowd? The answer is a resounding "Aye!" in this delirious amalgam of styles, colors and kinetic camera movements. Using the original dialogue of the play (pared down for reasons of length), but reworking almost everything else about the scenario, Luhrmann and company have produced a work which is not only faithful to the original theme and feeling of the piece, but resonates particularly well for contemporary times. Set in a fictional Verona Beach, a neon-drenched cross between Miami and Los Angeles, the story of star-crossed lovers is set between rival business families, each with their own gun-toting gang members and peculiar dysfunctions. As Romeo and Juliet, DiCaprio and Danes perform admirably, too, never letting the Technicolor chaos which surrounds them to overshadow their fine portrayals.