As was the case with The Back-Up Plan, I'm not exactly Letters to Juliet's key demographic, but thanks to an appealing turn by Amanda Seyfried and a welcome appearance by a luminous (and classy) Vanessa Redgrave, I found a lot of this picture enjoyable - despite a plethora of obvious rom-com conventions. In Letters to Juliet, Seyfried stars as Sophie. While vacationing in Italy with her budding chef of a fiancee (played by a highly energized Gael Garcia Bernal), Sophie becomes instantly captivated by an unanswered letter she finds in the famed Verona courtyard. As it turns out, there are several "letters to Juliet" left in the courtyard daily, and it's up to a staff of local women to reply to them. Taking it step further, Sophie finds the sender (Vanessa Redgrave) of this particular unanswered letter and decides to join she and her pompous grandson (Christopher Egan) on a journey that would reunite this woman with her long lost love. What happens on this journey is predictable to say the least, and the film ends on a seriously cheesy note, but I have little doubt that those who flock to see Letters to Juliet will swoon to its endlessly romantic sentiment. While Letters to Juliet is overly melodramatic and painfully obvious in its approach, it's worth watching for Seyfried, Redgrave, and the breathtaking Italian locales.

Grade: B-