Gnomeo and Juliet: Star Cross'd Love Gnome Style

What is a star cross’d lover to do when he finds the girl of his dreams but her plaster hat is red, the color of his sworn enemies? “Gnomeo and Juliet,” a wacky animated film opening today, turns Shakespeare’s famous tragedy of Juliet and her Romeo into a contest between two tribes of garden statuary, the red gnomes and the blue gnomes.

On Verona Street in the town of Stratford-Upon-Avon, the humans head off to work, never suspecting their large – some would say tacky – garden displays come to life in their absence. The garden of Miss Montague is done all in blue, crowned with a magnificent wisteria blooming from a toilet tank. She’s got crowds of cement bunnies and portly gnomes with big hats. Not to be outdone, Mr. Capulet keeps raises his garden blazing red, with firey tulips at its center. The crowning glory is a tower that rises from a koi pool, capped by a dainty and comely gnome maid holding a rose.

She’s Juliet (voiced by Emily Blunt). Once blue-capped Gnomeo (voice of James McAvoy) catches sight of her, his heart is forever lost. However, even as he falls in love, the simmering tension between the families escalates from lawnmower races to something much more sinister…herbicide. With the aide of her trusty friend, the frog fountain Nanette (Ashley Jensen), Juliet steals moments with Gnomeo in an abandoned garden. It’s the home of a pink plastic flamingo named Featherstone (Jim Cummings). He has a tale of woe to tell that is the saddest thing in the movie.

It seems he once ornamented the lawn of a happy couple and had a plastic mate of his own. Love, tragically, soured. The wife moved out taking her flamingo with her and robbing Featherstone of his love. In her absence, the husband raged and eventually left as well, abandoning the beautiful little world they had created to go fallow and decay.

It’s shown from the flamingo’s perspective with the humans blurry in the background, but it’s a sad counterpoint to the wordless montage of happy marriage in “Up.” When love fails, it doesn’t just affect the two people involved, but breaks down the very fabric of society. The sequence is the most touching in the film.

However, this isn’t a sad film. Although a statue Shakespeare assures Gnomeo that the ending will be gloriously tragic, it’s well adapted for a young audience. There are plenty of laughs from the silly Nanette, who is every bit as earthy and enthusiastic as Juliet’s nurse in the original. Adults will appreciate several sly and clever references to “Romeo and Juliet” as well as other works of The Bard. Men, in particular, will develop a passionate longing for one gnome’s weapon of choice, “The Terrafirminator,” a lawn mower so “unnecessarily powerful that your lawn will be afraid to grow.” Elton John is credited as an Executive Producer on the film and his music provides a fun and fabulous backdrop for the story. There are a few wink-wink jokes aimed at the parents, but nothing that crosses the line to belie the G rating.

The film is offered in 3D, but the 3D isn’t worth the extra expense of the ticket. Catch it in old fashioned 2D and you’ll be fine.

The family will enjoy the film, but the real value is in introducing the kiddos to the best writer the English language has produced. Once you’ve seen the story, tell them the real story in its tragic glory. Check out the Folger Shakespeare Library for some ideas or, depending on the age of your children, move on to the fantastic 1996 version “Romeo + Juliet,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. It’s set in modern day Rio (roughly) but uses the original language. There’s also the classic 1968 version which is seared in the memory of anyone who watched it in 7^th grade literature class in the 80s.

In any case, “Gnomeo and Juliet” is a delightful film that will be a welcome break from the winter doldrums for parents and children alike.

Read more by the same author:

Sanctum: Down the Hatch (Movie Review)

Oscar's Best Picture Contenders