In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, the character of Rosaline is never seen, but her presence can be felt with the young lovelorn Romeo. Before he’s met his ultimate love, Romeo is depressed over his apparent love for Rosaline, yet it’s this adoration for Rosaline that leads him to sneak into a Capulet party and coincidentally meet Juliet. Rosaline is integral to the story of getting these two tragic lovers together, even though it doesn’t seem like she’s even aware of her part in one of the most iconic love stories ever told. In Romeo and Juliet, Rosaline is more of a plot device than an actual character, but with Rosaline, the character—played by Kaitlyn Dever—becomes the star of her story.
In Rosaline, Dever is expectedly delightful as the title star, who has been having a secret relationship with Romeo (Kyle Allen). Rosaline’s father, Friar Laurence (Bradley Whitford) is trying to marry his daughter off, despite her desire to live her own life and pick her own husband. Laurence sends Rosaline on a date with a new suitor Dario (Sean Teale) who seems like an interesting match for Rosaline, but to her, Dario is just another person in between her and Romeo. That’s especially true when due to their date, Rosaline misses the masquerade ball where she’s supposed to meet up Romeo, but instead, Romeo meets Rosaline’s cousin Juliet (Isabela Merced) for the first time. After realizing that Romeo has more interest in Juliet than her, Rosalind starts spending more time with Juliet, attempting to sabotage her new relationship and get back together with Romeo.
Romeo and Juliet can often feel like either the greatest love story ever told, or a misguided tale of two young lovers whose foolishness led to their ultimate demise. Rosaline attempts to play to both of these viewpoints with mixed results. Directed by Karen Maine (Obvious Child) and written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (The Disaster Artist, (500) Days of Summer), Rosaline attempts to be almost a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead for the rivalry between Montagues and Capulets, but characterizations of these characters is all over the place. On one hand, Neustadter and Weber’s screenplay wants us to understand that Juliet is a brilliant, lovely person that would see the beauty in her family’s mortal enemy, but Rosaline also wants us to see this relationship as a foolhardy mistake made by two kids.
In addition to being based on Shakespeare’s original tale, Rosaline is also based on Rebecca Serle’s novel When You Were Mine, which updates Shakespeare’s story to the modern day—with the inclusion of Rosaline as a main character. Therefore, not only is Rosaline somewhat muddled on how it perceives the romance between Romeo and Juliet, it’s also based on both the original source material and a modern update. This leads to plenty of intentionally anachronistic choices, such as having Paris (Spencer Stevenson) talking about how Romeo is a “tasty Montague,” or needle drops that include a cover of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” and violins playing “All By Myself.”
Sometimes these unusual additions can work in a revisionist story like this, as in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, but only if the story goes all-in on these eccentricities. Like this year’s Persuasion, Rosaline balances back and forth between utilizing the source material and throwing in modern elements. Since Rosaline is understandably focused more on the antics of the title character, her attempts to win Romeo, and the film’s sly winks to the audience who is probably familiar with this beloved romance already, Rosaline is full of opportunities to throw in little jokes that don’t necessarily land. For example, Lord Capulet (Christopher McDonald) talks about how he wants to “make this city great again,” and when Rosaline hears about Juliet’s plan to pretend like she’s dead in order to run away with Romeo, Rosaline calls this the “dumbest fucking plan.”
Through their script, Neustadter and Weber seem like they want to poke fun at the absurdities of the Romeo and Juliet story and update it in their own way, but do so in a way that doesn’t have much interest in the source material. This is especially clear in the characterization of Juliet, who shifts depending on what the story needs of her. For much of the film’s second act, Rosaline is learning that Juliet is an impressive woman, and it makes complete sense how Romeo could fall for her. But when Rosaline decides to play around in the machinations of the original Shakespeare story, Rosaline decides out of nowhere to make her a character who comes up with the “dumbest fucking plan” and never quite shows her intelligence again, once the story needs her to make more questionable choices.
But because the characterizations of Romeo and Juliet that Neustadter and Weber are writing don’t quite work, Rosaline naturally is at its best when it focuses on the title character and her potential new love interest in Dario. Dever does her best to walk the line between reverence for the original story and playful modernity, and she certainly pulls this balancing act off better than anyone else. Similarly, Sean Teale as Dario is a charming foil to Rosaline’s eccentricities—becoming the Romeo she needs, not the Romeo she necessarily wants.
Rosaline's shows its strengths when it focuses on the parallel story of Rosaline and Dario, but when the narrative crosses paths directly with Shakespeare’s story, Rosaline starts to fall apart, becoming a muddled mess of modern references, unusual characterizations, and ideas that don’t mix as well as they should. Instead of focusing on the star-crossed lovers that we already know so much about, Rosaline might've been better to completely avoid their narrative altogether. As it stands, Rosaline has the inklings of a great idea—one that we've seen work with Shakespeare's works before—and while there are moments of fun teases to the audience throughout, Rosaline is unfortunately wedded to calamity.
Rating: C+
Rosaline is now streaming on Hulu.