By Scott Day
Spoiler-free
I just want to say that this film was so damn cute. I had a grin on my face throughout. It has the charm of a 90s or 00s romantic comedy like 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) or She’s The Man (2006) in that it takes modern issues but uses Shakespearean classicism as a basis for them in a fun and appealing way. Something which I believe is sorely lacking in films nowadays.
Directed by Karen Maine (2019’s Yes, God, Yes) in her sophomore feature effort and scripted by experienced young adult romanticists Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (2009’s 500 Days of Summer, 2013’s The Spectacular Now), Rosaline is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet from the perspective of Juliet’s cousin Rosaline Capulet (who, I now discover, is mentioned by name, though never seen, in the source material! A nice touch). Romeo’s girlfriend before she misses a masquerade ball, causing Romeo to meet Juliet and fall for her, Rosaline spends the subsequent narrative trying to win Romeo back.
I think one of the best parts about the film, other than Kaitlyn Dever’s hilarious yet angsty and sardonic performance, is how it juxtaposes modern social values with antiquated gender roles. Rather than handling them in an awkwardly dissonant way, which would have been easy to do, Rosaline makes it clear that antiquated roles for women are still very much an unfortunate part of the society in which we live, but that it doesn’t have to be like that. For example, over the course of the film, many of the male characters go from viewing their female counterparts as props to be auctioned off to male suitors, to women with agency who are capable of making their own decisions and know what’s best for themselves.
Unfortunately, the film also indulges in some heteronormative clichés, pitting women against women over a man, and does have a tendency to fall into a pop feminism perspective that isn’t overly insightful. But it is so fun and charming that I can mostly overlook these flaws.
Rating: 7/10
Rosaline (2022) can be seen on Disney+ now.
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY FILM INQUIRER 