Letters to Juliet (2010)

This is a full on, no apologies offered romance--so if that is a genre you cannot abide by, stop now and avoid this movie.
There are two stars of this film, and there are two love stories.
Vanessa Redgrave is one of the first, playing Claire, a woman seeking an old love, and she is the most compelling reason to see Letters to Juliet. In this movie you see the talents of a legendary British actor and Italian settings that have you ready to book your flight to Italy as soon as the credits are running.
However, Claire is not technically the heroine. That role falls to cat-eyed Amanda Seyfried, an appealingly offbeat ingenue. She plays Sophie, a winsome fact checker at The New Yorker who goes to Verona on vacation with her fiancé Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal, impish, handsome, hipster thin, and fun in a thankless role), a chef whose idea of an Italian holiday includes cheese, wine and olive oil tastings (actually, I would have peeled off with him myself, but the movie goes with Sophie who is more inclined to the typical tourist haunts).

Sophie stumbles onto a bizarre real-life tradition in Verona, home of Shakespeare's Capulets and Montagues. Young women write letters to Juliet, seeking counsel in matters of the heart from Romeo's doomed love (presumably, although who knows? Some may ask for help with math) and deposit them under the prototype of her famous balcony. For decades a fleet of Juliet's "secretaries" have been answering these letters.
What brings her into contact with Claire is a letter left in the wall many decades ago when Claire was a teenager waffling over what to do about an attraction to a fabulous young Italian named Lorenzo. Sophie responds, as Juliet's secretary, urging her to follow her heart — if it is still ticking — and within days, Claire shows up in Verona with her grandson Charlie (Chris Egan, who has no where near the appeal of Gael Garcia bernal, so you know that love is a quirky thing from this movie).
Sophie and Claire are kindred spirits, romantics perfectly matched to take on a driving tour of Italy, looking for Lorenzo, wherever he might have landed.
But I'd take anyone to Letters to Juliet and my guess is we'd both leave with a little Italian glow.