Seyfried plays Sophie, a fact checker for the New Yorker who travels to Verona, the Tuscan city immortalized in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Hidden inside a crumbling brick wall, Sophie discovers a letter written by a star-crossed lover in search of answers more than 50 years ago.
Sophie manages to track down the letter’s author, Claire (Redgrave), who wrote the letter after leaving her Italian fiance Lorenzo in Tuscany decades earlier. Sparks fly between Sophie and Claire’s grandson (Egan) when she arrives in Tuscany in search of her Lorenzo.
“It’s a very funny and very moving film, probably the best kind of romantic comedy,” said producer Mark Canton. “It seems to touch a chord in everybody.”
The film debuted at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival earlier this week and is slated to hit theaters nationwide May 14.
Attendance has been pretty much on target for this year’s festival, said Gregg Schwenk, chief executive of the Newport Beach Film Festival.
Schwenk is still waiting on the final tally, but expects that about 51,000 moviegoers will have attended festival events over the past week, which is on par with last year’s attendance.
Several films at the festival played to sold-out crowds this year, including the Orange County-centered documentaries “We Were Feared” and “Living it Forever.”
“With more than 360 films from over 47 different countries, we really try to blend the classic and with the new,” Schwenk said. “’Letters to Juliet’ is a wonderful way to round out what has been a compelling week of great movies.”
If You Go
What: “Letters to Juliet” screening and after party
When: 7:30 tonight
Where: Lido Regency Theatre, followed by a party at the Via Lido Courtyard.
