Romeo + Juliet (1996)

Romeo + Juliet rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb6.7/10· 258K votes

Rotten Tomatoes75%

Metacritic60%

TMDb6.779/10· 5K votes

With 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 6.7/10 on IMDb and 60/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been positive.

About Romeo + Juliet

In this contemporary take on William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, the Montagues and Capulets have moved their ongoing feud to the sweltering suburb of Verona Beach, where Romeo and Juliet fall in love and secretly wed. Though the film is visually modern, the bard's dialogue remains.

Cast of Romeo + Juliet

• 

  Leonardo DiCaprio

  as Romeo

• 

  Claire Danes

  as Juliet

• 

  Jesse Bradford

  as Balthasar

• 

  Vondie Curtis-Hall

  as Captain Prince

• 

  Brian Dennehy

  as Ted Montague

• 

  John Leguizamo

  as Tybalt

• 

  Miriam Margolyes

  as Nurse

• 

  Harold Perrineau

  as Mercutio

• 

  Christina Pickles

  as Caroline Montague

• 

  Pete Postlethwaite

  as Father Laurence

• 

  Paul Rudd

  as Dave Paris

• 

  Paul Sorvino

  as Fulgencio Capulet

Romeo + Juliet facts

Budget

$14.5M

Box office

$147.3M

Our take on Romeo + Juliet

Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film transplants Shakespeare's tragedy into a feverish contemporary setting, relocating the Montague-Capulet feud to the sweltering suburb of Verona Beach while keeping the original verse intact. Amid guns, neon and pop iconography, Romeo and Juliet fall in love and secretly wed, their romance racing toward its fated end. The clash between modern imagery and Elizabethan dialogue defines the experience, giving this drama-romance a bold, music-video pulse. It suits viewers curious about daring adaptations and anyone wanting Shakespeare delivered with visual audacity rather than period restraint. If you enjoy stylized reinvention of familiar material and don't mind heightened, kinetic filmmaking, this remains a striking, unmistakably Luhrmann take.