JULIET & ROMEO
A modern musical Shakespeare, well-made but not for younger kids.
Should You Watch It?
If you love musicals and don't mind Shakespeare taking a few liberties with itself, this one is worth your evening. It's beautifully shot, costumed, and staged, with performances — especially Derek Jacobi as the friar and Nicholas Podany as Mercutio — that carry real weight. The songs take a scene or two to win you over, but several become genuinely memorable.
The film also does something rarer than good production values: it lets Christian faith breathe. God, Jesus, and the church aren't scenery here — a friar who prays, appeals to God, and preaches peace over feud is one of the story's moral centers, and the film's theme of brotherhood overcoming family division is handled with real sincerity.
But it earns its caution flag. A tavern song carries two strong profanities. There's drunkenness, references to illicit romantic meetings, and an ending that hinges on two newly married teenagers faking their own suicides to escape their families. None of that is graphic, but none of it is nothing, either. For teens and adults, this is a rewarding night at the movies. For younger children, wait.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESFourteenth-century Verona is a city torn between two feuding families — the Capulets and the Montagues — and caught between the Church and the political powers in Rome. Into that tension walks Juliet, newly returned from school, and Romeo, heir to a family that despises everything her name represents. One glance across a crowded street, and neither of them cares.
What follows is courtship, secrecy, and a friar willing to risk everything to marry two young people whose families would rather see them apart. Where their story goes from there — and how differently it ends from the version you remember — we'll let you discover for yourself.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means this is a solid, well-crafted musical with real strengths and a few rough edges — not a masterpiece, not a misfire. The film looks the part: handsome staging, strong costuming, and editing that keeps a two-hour musical moving. Derek Jacobi's friar and Nicholas Podany's Mercutio are the clear standouts, and the scene where a wounded Mercutio delivers Shakespeare's famous curse lands with genuine emotional force.
The songs are a mixed bag early on — some sound too similar, and the instrumentation in the first act overwhelms the vocals — but several numbers, including two romantic ballads and a comic duet between the friar and the apothecary, stand out and improve on a second listen. The two young leads playing Romeo and Juliet are gentle rather than showy, which suits characters meant to be teenagers discovering love, not seasoned performers commanding the stage.
The Worldview
This is, unexpectedly, a strongly Christian film. God and Jesus are named with reverence, not irony. The church and its friar aren't set dressing — the friar is the story's moral compass, appealing to God, quoting Scripture, and working openly for peace between two families who'd rather keep fighting. The film's central conviction — that love and brotherhood can overcome inherited hatred — is one Scripture shares, and the movie earns its most moving scene by dramatizing it: an adopted son and his "brother" refusing to let a feud define their bond.
The film tempers that strength with some real softness. Its romance leans hard on love-at-first-sight, treating instant infatuation as destiny rather than something to be tested. One song reads as mildly politically correct in its framing of the women's experience — worth noting, though it's a minor thread rather than the film's argument. And the story's climax turns on deception and faked death rather than honest reconciliation, a choice that undercuts the very peace the friar has been working toward.
Underneath the feud is an old human ache: the hope that love might finally end a war that hate started generations ago. Scripture answers that hope more completely than Verona ever could — "For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong Christian, moral worldview includes multiple references to God, Jesus, the Bible, and a couple biblical passages, the plot is driven by the theme that love and brotherhood overcome differences between families, including feuds, a priest is a positive figure who extols peace and tries to do the right thing, mitigated by some Romantic elements about falling in love at first sight and deception, with a political correct sing that seems a bit feminist in a politically correct way
Foul Language
One “s” word, one “h” word, two GD profanities in a song’s lyrics, and two light exclamatory profanities, plus priest makes two or three appeals to God such as “God save us”
Violence
Some strong and light violence with light blood and wounds and two fatal wounds includes young men fight one another in two scenes, two young men stage an exhibition swordfight, and it’s clear there’s no love lost between them, soldiers chase some young men who’ve been fighting in the streets, male title character’s father knocks him down and bloodies his son’s lip when the son sneaks over the walls enclosing the family’ s abode, a final fight involves two men being killed, and two recently married young lovers fake their suicides to run away from their feuding families
Sex
Implied fornication when one young man wakes up in bed next to his current girlfriend, the cast sings a song at a tavern about loving someone tonight but singing that this doesn’t mean they will love the person tomorrow, an implied marital scene between Romeo and Juliet after the friar marries them, and Romeo and Juliet kiss passionately while courting one another
Nudity
No sexual nudity, but some upper male nudity and some female cleavage
Alcohol Use
Lots of alcohol use at a get-together at a local tavern, where at least one young man is clearly drunk, plus some other cases of social drinking
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking, but the local apothecary gives Romeo some “herbs” for relaxation, and two lovers drink a potion that will put them into a deep sleep simulating death but will kill them if they don’t take an antidote in time;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Two recently married young lovers fake their suicide to run away from their feuding families, two families are engaged in a terrible feud, young people sneak out of their homes at night, and parents of a young woman arrange a marriage for her without telling her (they leave it to the intended groom).
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The friar believes love between Romeo and Juliet could bring peace to two feuding families. What does real peacemaking cost, and why does Scripture call it blessed?
Matthew 5:9 · Ephesians 2:14Romeo tells Mercutio that even though they don't share parents, Mercutio will always be his brother. What makes family more than blood, in your view?
Proverbs 18:24 · John 15:13Juliet and Romeo fake their deaths rather than face their families honestly. When has deception ever actually solved a real conflict in your own experience?
Proverbs 12:22 · Ephesians 4:25The film treats falling in love at first sight as destiny. How does that compare with what the Bible says about love that lasts — patience, sacrifice, and choice, not just feeling?
1 Corinthians 13:4–7The Final Word
This is a musical with real craft, real heart, and a friar who points every wandering soul back to God — set inside a plot with drunkenness, a couple of strong profanities, and an ending that trades honesty for deception. Older teens and adults will likely find it rewarding. Our answer stands: worth the trip — older children and up. Choosing for younger kids this week? Try our latest family-friendly picks.
