Setting aside for a moment the fact that the young bro, whom we shall call SkaterBoy, had zero idea that I existed (he was a jock, I a theater geek - how star-crossed can you get, right?), somehow this movie implanted in my mind the idea that true love was possible for teenagers. It brought up a lot of questions, specifically about the eighth grader I had a crush on, and how to manufacture the balcony scene in real life with this young skateboarder as my personal Romeo. And while to this day I think they were both amazing in those parts, that movie ushered in a very confusing era for me. In this film version, which turns 20 this month, Leonardo DiCaprio plays the Romeo to Claire Danes's Juliet. Not long after I read Romeo and Juliet in class, I also watched Romeo + Juliet on VHS tape at a slumber party, and generally got pretty confused about the concept of love at first sight and the affections of teenage boys. But isn't it also setting up some seriously f*cked expectations about what true love really looks like? Sure, it's valuable historical literature that is certainly worth adding to the curriculum. Hear me out: I really think Shakespeare's best-known work has been damaging the minds of young readers for literally centuries. One thing that I'm not sure my teacher realized when - for the umpteenth time in her educational tenure - she introduced the tragic love story to a new generation of teens is that our interaction with the play might actually have a long-term impact on the way we thought about love. A plague on both their houses dark days in Verona where we lay our scene, etc.
Once girl realizes the mix-up, she too commits suicide. Girl gets promised to another suitor, so takes a Middle Ages Ambien that makes her seem dead - but then boy thinks girl is actually dead and kills himself. Boy and girl realize that their only love hath sprung from their only hate, but get secret-married anyway. But while the language-level understanding came slowly, it's still a story that wears its heart on its sleeve. If memory serves, the first contact I ever had with Romeo and Juliet occurred in middle school English class, when we read the play aloud and struggled to figure out what any of it actually meant.
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