Gnomeo and Juliet Review

by Chris Mikesell

The biggest problem with doing a remake of Romeo and Juliet would have to be the ending.

The play is a tragedy - not just because the leads die but because everybody in the play and the audience expects them to keel over by the end.

Even if it weren't a play so many people have done so many times before, and even if you've been living under a rock or on Mars since the early 1600's, you're bound to get the overwhelming feeling that things are going to end badly for whatever remix of the "star-crossed lovers" trope is coming across the stage this time, no spoiler alert required.

Thankfully, the people behind "Gnomeo and Juliet" are aware of this. The film's first line acknowledges that, yes, it's a story that's been told many times but that this time it's going to be told differently.

Just how different is left up to the creative workings of executive producer Elton John (yes, Sir Elton John, in all his bedazzled glory.) "Gnomeo" plays well, floating somewhere between fabulous Disney-esque musical theatre and the original source material.

Those who know the play will have a lot of fun figuring out how the original play's cast got translated into "Gnomeo's" garden gnomes world, though they may miss some of the specific details that get glossed over in the effort to make the originally rated-R plot of Shakepeare's work more PG - and more accessible to modern kids.

And yet... the impulse remains. It's a bright and charming children's movie with a few pop culture references, but it's still a Romeo and Juliet remake.

This can't end well, you'll tell yourself. These two lovebirds have got to die somehow.

"Gnomeo and Juliet" is so self-aware, however, that it almost feels like it's cheating. Just think: if Othello had access to a copy of his own play's Cliff's Notes, the play would take a lot less than two hours to get through, Iago would be dead, and Ophelia wouldn't be such dire need of a sassy gay friend on YouTube.

The thing is, I'm okay with that. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something the characters don't - it's the thing that makes you want to shout at the stage, the thing that makes you want to stop these guys from doing something stupid you know is going to happen.

It's a kid's movie. Let them have their fun.

FINAL VERDICT: "Gnomeo and Juliet" is Elton John's way of making the classic Shakespeare play work for the younger set. Strict purists may not enjoy the reinterpretation, but it isn't for them, now, is it? A-