Cast:
- Kaitlyn Dever as Rosaline
- Isabela Merced as Juliet
- Kyle Allen as Romeo
- Sean Teale as Dario
- Bradley Whitford as Adrian Capulet
- Minnie Driver as Nurse
Synopsis & Insights:
A new and hilarious perspective in Rosaline retells the love story of Romeo and Juliet through the eyes of Rosaline, Juliet’s cousin and also ex-lover of Romeo. At the center is Kaitlyn Dever as the quick-witted Rosa who is heartbroken because Kyle Allen’s character Romeo falls in love with Isabela Merced’s Juliet and completely disregards Rosaline’s feelings.
Ever since she was introduced as ‘Juliet’s ex-lover’, the movie shows Rosaline trying to be the baby sit and separate the two growing lovers, which is rather fun and leads to a lot of surprises. It is Dever who stands out most in this respect injecting her character with a combination of humor, charisma, and vulnerability. The ancient story becomes more relatable after viewing Rosaline as an empowered young woman who is hopelessly in love and unable to cope.
In contrast to Rosaline, Isabela Merced plays a more innocent and naive Juliet. This makes the love scenes between the characters especially Rosaline and Dario, the love interest, Sean Teale, superbly light and youthful.
Rosaline is such a clever twist of the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet as it provides a different angle to the well known story. It can be categorized as a romcom with a slight satirical element to it making it very entertaining to people who love Shakespeare’s works as well as the audiences who want something different from traditional stories. It has enough freshness and sarcasm to make current audiences appreciate it, yet it doesn’t deviate too far away from the major love-fate-relationship conflict themes that were so easy to grasp in the original play.
To those who like romantic comedies, but with funny surprises, Rosaline is a fun and clever take on love, jealousy and how far one can go in order to achieve that illusive second shot at happiness. It is very good in its viewpoint and interesting in its acting and other performances that it deserves to be under this category of films.
