Director Karen Maine’s new comedy, Rosaline, works time beyond regulation to discover a new perspective in some of the well-known tales of all time. The story in query? None aside from William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, which stays so iconic that its affect continues to be felt as we speak. As its title suggests, Maine’s movie doesn’t place its give attention to both of that play’s eponymous, star-crossed lovers, although, however fairly on the girl who had initially captured younger Romeo’s coronary heart earlier than he set his eyes for the primary time on her cousin, Juliet.

In Shakespeare’s play, Rosaline is talked about often however by no means given an precise line of dialogue. Here, the character is reimagined as a brash and decided younger girl who refuses to easily settle for Romeo’s change of coronary heart. Instead, she units out to win him again by way of any means needed. The movie, in different phrases, makes an attempt to construct a reasonably frequent rom-com plot out of probably the most iconic love story of all time. Rosaline, to its credit score, principally succeeds at doing so, thanks in no small half to the fiery and charismatic efficiency given by its younger lead.

When Rosaline begins, issues are going fairly nicely for its eponymous younger heroine (performed right here by Booksmart star Kaitlyn Dever). While her father (a lovably irritable Bradley Whitford) stays dedicated in the beginning of the movie to forcing her into an organized marriage with one in all Verona’s many rich males, Dever’s Rosaline has grown adept at keeping off all of the male suitors which might be despatched her manner. Her unwavering dedication to doing so has, consequently, left her with the liberty to not solely spend her days studying in regards to the world and its historical past but in addition proceed to satisfy nightly along with her lovestruck crush, Romeo (Kyle Allen), who’s imagined strikingly nicely right here as an unoriginal and uninteresting younger playboy.

Rosaline’s dream of working away with Romeo is dashed, nevertheless, when she realizes one evening that he has left his relationship along with her behind in favor of a brand new romance along with her stunning younger cousin, Juliet (Isabela Merced). Rosaline later learns that her once-enamored admirer inadvertently met and fell in love with Juliet whereas attending a Capulet gathering (you already know the one), which she missed whereas she was away on an compulsory date with a surprisingly charming and good-looking warfare veteran named Dario (Sean Teale). This unlucky coincidence successfully units the stage for the remainder of Rosaline‘s story, which any well-versed rom-com fan ought to have the ability to predict with out breaking a lot of a sweat.

That mentioned, Rosaline isn’t with out its surprises. By rewriting its titular heroine not as an uninvolved spectator however as an energetic participant in Romeo and Juliet’s tragic love story, the movie, which relies on a 2012 YA novel by Rebecca Serle, finds numerous methods to cleverly subvert sure iconic beats from Shakespeare’s unique play. While the movie’s many subversions will probably irk all of the Shakespeare purists on the market as nicely, Rosaline manages to rewrite its iconic supply materials in such a playfully irreverent method that it turns into simple to simply accept all of its many, many modifications.

Dever’s lead efficiency additionally performs an integral function in Rosaline nailing its tongue-in-cheek tone. Given the all-too-rare likelihood to steer her personal movie, Dever doesn’t let the chance to fully stroll away with Rosaline move her by. Here, she demonstrates the identical comedic chops and charisma that she memorably showcased in Booksmart. However, it’s her capacity to remain true to her character’s narcissistic persona with out making her wholly unlikable that permits Rosaline to work in addition to it does. The movie would in any other case collapse with out Dever’s efficiency, which rapidly emerges as each the beating coronary heart of Rosaline and its most helpful supply of comedy.

While the movie itself may stand to shed a couple of of its 96 minutes, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber’s script finds loads of room for moments of real comedy and romance inside Rosaline’s pretty formulaic narrative. Anyone who’s ever caught themselves rolling their eyes on the movie’s iconic pair of younger lovers will, specifically, probably delight within the methods Rosaline each performs up and pokes holes at their short-lived love story. (That’s very true of an surprising homage to The Graduate that Maine, Neustadter, and Weber throw out at precisely the proper second.)

Not all of Rosaline‘s comic swings work, including one recurring gag involving an unreliable, perpetually stoned courier named Steve (Nico Hiraga). The film’s misses by no means find yourself outweighing its hits, although, and that’s largely attributable to how well-cast Rosaline‘s ensemble is. Supporting gamers like Christopher McDonald and Spencer Stevenson, for example, flip in spectacularly over-the-top performances as Lord Capulet and Paris, respectively. Kyle Allen additionally provides a surprisingly pitch-perfect efficiency as Romeo, whom Rosaline joyfully reimagines as the last word Shakespearean himbo.

Rosaline is, in different phrases, a superbly effective new tackle Shakespeare’s most iconic love story. Like lots of the movies that appear to debut completely on streaming platforms as of late, it’s a bit too visually naked and narratively uninventive to really rise above its competitors. However, as each a riff on some of the well-known tales of all time and a homage to the sort of YA Shakespeare variations that had been commonplace within the ’90s and early 2000s, Rosaline is a enjoyable, if minor, success.

Rosaline is now streaming on Hulu.

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