For long periods of my life, I’ve nurtured a completely irrational dislike for the actor Leonardo di Caprio, a dislike probably rooted in my background as a male kid in the late 90s, when “Leo” was the dream boy of every girl, and the envy of every boy. And, as is so very often the case, envy has a way of turning into even less desirable emotions.

But in recent years, I have luckily been able to shake this dubious antipathy, and I’ve come to realise that di Caprio is really a rather talented fellow, with an undeserved bad image as nothing but a “teen idol”.

So, in part because of this, but also because Radiohead’s beautiful “Exit Music (For A Film)” is used during the end credits, I decided to buy and watch “Romeo + Juliet“: A modernisation of William Shakespeare’s famous play.

That is to say, they’ve only modernised the setting; the dialogue is precisely the same as they are in the play. This made for a few cheesy scenes, especially in the beginning. This got better as the movie progressed and I got more used to the style, but at the same time, as Orson Scott Card has pointed out (he’s “translated” a few of Shakespeare’s plays into modern English), “Romeo and Juliet” starts out as something of a comedy, as much humour is extracted from the relationship between especially the Montague Boys, but also from Romeo’s idolisation of Rosaline, the beauty we never get to see.

Anyway, as soon as I grew familiar with the style — flamboyantly cheesy characters, gangsters who threw insults in 16th century English at each other — I got sucked in, and didn’t come out before Thom Yorke had crooned his last “we hope that you choke”.

All in all, I thought this was a tasteful rendition of the play — which I’ve only seen once before, and then in something of a minimalist style, with few props, no scenery beyond a crate and a couple of pillars, and modest costumes — and the story of the thing was as tragic as it always is. The way coincidents and unlucky timing cause the death of the two lovers is both frustrating and captivating to watch. Especially here, as Luhrmann had changed the way Romeo died, so that Juliet, instead of waking up and finding him dead, woke up to see him gobble down poison, and die.

8.5/10.

(Oh, and the movie also made good use of my least favourite Radiohead song — “Talkshow Host” — thus giving me an incentive to give that song another chance.)

Also? Claire Danes at 17 was one hell of a pretty lass. Can’t wait to see her as Yvaine in “Stardust”.