Movie review: "Letters to Juliet"

I am turning into such a girl.

Normally when I see chic flicks, it's because my girlier friends are pouting and begging me to go. And I usually end up wanting to gouge my eyes out with my Twizzlers and cursing that Kate Hudson was ever born.

For the past several weeks, though, my estrogen levels have been at an all time high or something. I was the one who invited my friends to come with me to see this movie.

I defend this with these reasons:

1. The movie takes place in Italy. Who doesn't want to spend 2 hours looking at Italian scenery?

2. The male love interest has an accent. I loooooooooooove guys with accents.

3. Amanda Seyfried is a cool lady. Check out some of her interviews on YouTube to confirm.

4. Vanessa Redgrave is amazing. Period.

So I went into the theater, armed with Twizzlers, fully expecting to be annoyed just like I am every other time I see a movie that has Taylor Swift on the soundtrack. But guess what?

I freakin' loved this movie.

Amanda Seyfried plays Sophie, a wannabe writer who goes to Verona with her chef fiance Victor, who is too preoccupied with his own agenda to pay any attention to her. One of the many times she's left to her own devices, she comes across a group of women who serve as "Juliet's secretaries," meaning they answer the letters that people leave for Juliet on the wall of her house. Sophie finds one from 1957, replies to it, and is surprised a few days later with the arrival of the woman who wrote it, Claire, and her grandson Charlie (accent).

Charlie is a total ass, but because he has abandonment issues and fears for his grandmother's feelings. Claire, however, is determined to find Lorenzo, the long-lost love she wrote the letter about all those years ago. Sophie tags along and documents everything for a story she's planning to write and hopes it's what will finally get her published.

Over the course of the search for Lorenzo, Sophie realized what love really is and that she and Victor do not have it. And, of course, she and Charlie fall for each other. Alas, she goes back to New York and he to London. She gets published, breaks up with Victor and goes back to Italy for Lorenzo and Claire's wedding. She sees Charlie there, confesses her love, he confesses his, big dramatic kiss scene, that's a wrap, cut and print.

Like all chic flicks, this is predictable. Of course Charlie and Sophie would find their way back to each other. Of course it would be at the very last second when the audience is supposed to think it's never going to happen. Of course Taylor Swift is singing over the scene.

But for some reason, this time it was ok with me. Maybe because the movie poked fun at itself and the cheesiness of romantic comedies in general. Charlie's snark served well there. Maybe because of the four reasons I mentioned above. But mostly... mostly it's because I've been super girlie these days and seeing love on a screen makes me ache for love in real life. In Italy. With a guy who has an accent.