Rosaline (2022)
Rosaline is the only thing worse than a modernized adaptation of a Shakespeare play that retains the original dialogue — it’s a parody of a Shakespeare play that preserves the original temporal/geographical setting but makes the characters say things like “It’s time to make this city great again” and features a diegetic soundtrack of Roxette, Celine Dion, and Eric Carmen covers.
Dr. Johnson called puns the lowest form of humor (and he was thinking of Shakespeare when he said it), but intentional anachronisms are a rung below even that. Also, memo to the filmmakers: the Trump administration ended nearly two years before Rosaline was released, and Romeo and Juliet debuted in 1597 — so maybe choose targets that are a little more topical next time?
[2025 update: Joke’s on me. Rosaline was either way more clairvoyant or way more pessimistic than I gave it credit for.]
To be fair, Romeo was dumb enough to fall for not one but two Capulet women in the original play. How the makers of this movie knew that, though, is a mystery — since they clearly didn’t care about their source material at all.
In Shakespeare’s text, Rosaline is never seen or heard (a wise choice, if she was anything like she’s portrayed here). Moreover, she doesn’t reciprocate Romeo’s feelings. She only exists to justify his early angst.
In this film, however, Romeo’s infatuation is just a launching pad for a love quadrangle that we’ve seen a thousand times before. It’s as if the filmmakers were aiming for Taming of the Shrew, then remembered someone had already done that — far better — in 10 Things I Hate About You (which had Heath Ledger in it, a stark contrast to the low-rent Ledger lookalike playing Romeo in Rosaline). One reason 10 Things works so well is that it adapted a comedy into a comedy. It’s not rocket science.
Rosaline, on the other hand, assumes that the original ending of Romeo and Juliet is too depressing and tries to «fix» it, dumbing the material down from the bottom up.
If the filmmakers had more than a passing knowledge of Shakespeare, they’d know there’s no need to lighten his work — the man wrote 17 comedies. He had a sharp sense of humor, and he wove it into even his darkest plays: the gravedigger in Hamlet, the porter in Macbeth, and yes, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet.
That doesn’t mean Rosaline should’ve been a Mercutio comedy (expanding minor Shakespearean characters is usually a mistake — Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead comes to mind). But it does mean it never needed to be a comedy at all — and certainly not this kind of comedy.
Honestly, whatever Rosaline is, a comedy it’s not.
Case in point: Rosaline (Kaitlyn Dever) miseducates Juliet (Isabela Merced) by giving her an “erotic book.” Juliet says, “They don’t teach you that in finishing school.” We never find out what “that” is because the film has zero imagination. Rosaline replies, “Wait till you get to page 74.”
Page 74? Why not 69? It would still be crass, yes, but at least it would make some kind of comedic sense. You know your movie’s in trouble when it makes you long for the comedic subtlety of Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
Works Cited
Rosaline. Directed by Karen Maine, performances by Kaitlyn Dever and Isabela Merced, 20th Century Studios, 2022.
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, Folger Shakespeare Library, Simon & Schuster, 2011.
Johnson, Samuel. The Life of Samuel Johnson. Edited by John Hawkins, J.M. Dent & Sons, 1901.
Related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSDbzv5vsWE&pp=ygUVcm9zYWxpbmUgdHJhaWxlciAyMDIy
Dina and Abby actors Isabela Merced and Kaitlyn Dever starred together in a Hulu film called "Rosaline" in 2022! 🔥
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Una versión bastante moderna de Romeo y Julieta, pero ¡me ha gustado! Se deja ver y tiene sus puntos de humor 👍
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