We all know the story of Romeo and Juliet. The tale of two star-crossed lovers whose feuding families only reconciled after the couple’s tragic deaths.
It spurred the line: “For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
But that wasn’t exactly the whole story.
Turns out, Romeo compared another woman to the sun and moon before he met Juliet—her cousin, in fact. And after Romeo spurns her love in favor of Juliet’s, that cousin is willing to do just about anything to get him back.
Thus begins the tragedy of Romeo and Rosaline.
After hearing Rosaline’s lovelorn tale, several of her friends try to explain how love is supposed to feel—namely, that it’s supposed to make you feel good, not sad. And Rosaline slowly learns that her ideals about love and romance are misled. (Someone tells her it’s easy to mistake danger and drama for romance.)
Rosaline also recognizes that her proud and jaded attitude has caused her to misjudge several people. She realizes her jealousy has caused her to act very poorly—especially toward Juliet, whom she attempts to corrupt in order to make her less desirable to Romeo. Rosaline stops acting selfishly and apologizes to the people she’s wronged. And she makes amends by helping them pursue their own goals.
Rosaline’s father, Adrian, initially kowtows to society’s standards regarding the treatment of women. However, he eventually affirms Rosaline and her outspokenness, telling her that she’s everything he ever wished her to be. He stands up for her to other men, telling them to stop talking so that she can be heard. This action enables other women to call out their husbands’ foul behavior as well—specifically the “blind hatred” and “petty squabbling” that led Romeo and Juliet to take extreme measures.
A woman overcomes her own fears to help a friend in need.
Though it takes the death of their children, two families finally agree to end their decades-old feud.
Someone quotes the beginning of 1 Corinthians 13:4. Juliet is prepared for burial in a church by nun. We hear some earnest expressions of thanks to God. A woman shouts, “Heaven forsake thee!” A gay man, pretending to propose to a woman, promises her father to “guide her morally” and “keep her on a righteous path.”
Rosaline’s best friend, Paris, states that he doesn’t want to marry a woman. He acts effeminately and gets excited when someone mentions “strapping young men.” (Paris also makes a fake marriage proposal to Juliet—who won’t be old enough to marry for another two years—to buy some time and stop his father from pestering him about marriage.)
Several couples kiss passionately. Rosaline asks a man to put on a shirt since his bare chest is “distracting.” After soaking her heavy dress, Rosaline strips to her shift (modest by modern standards, but scandalous at the time since it’s her underclothes). One man averts his eyes when he spots her, and several townsfolk shout in anger when she runs through the streets like this.
After tricking Juliet into believing that Romeo is a cad, Rosaline tells her to “play the field.” She bullies Juliet into flirting with several men at a pub. And she gives her younger cousin a book entitled Erotic Love, which shocks Juliet when she reads it.
When Rosaline tells Dario (a suitor) that she has a boyfriend, he initially stops pursuing her. However, after Dario learns that Romeo has cheated on Rosaline with Juliet (even though Rosaline won’t admit it), he tries to sway her opinion.
Adrian tries to marry Rosaline off to a man who’s much, much older than she is. Even though Juliet isn’t of “marriageable age,” she elopes with Romeo.
There’s some double entendre about swords. A couple is discovered presumably post-coital, and there’s a discussion about what happened. (They were hidden behind a bush and the woman is only wearing part of her outer garments.)
When Rosaline and Dario enter Montague territory, they are pursued by guards. Dario fights off the guards with a sword, knocking most of them unconscious. (We hear that Dario fought in an unrelated war and plans to return to battle.)
We hear a fight took place between Romeo and Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, resulting in Tybalt’s death (we see his corpse) and the injury of Romeo’s best friend (whom we see being carted off to a doctor).
Two men argue and shove each other in a marketplace. They draw swords and fight, but someone stops it before anyone is hurt. A man bandages a woman’s cut hand.
A woman hits a ball with a croquet mallet, and we hear the ball hit a bird offscreen. A man slips and nearly falls off a balcony, but he catches himself.
[Spoiler Warning] Though the original Shakespearean tragedy ends in a double suicide, this story does not. Someone alerts Romeo that Juliet faked her death. So the couple pretends to be dead until their families clear the scene.
We hear one use of the f-word and five uses of the s-word. God’s name is abused 13 times, and Christ’s name is abused once. Other profanity includes uses of “a–,” “h—” and the British expletive “bloody.” People also say “son of a —,” but get cut off before finishing the phrase.
Several characters drink at a tavern, and it appears a few of them are drunk. Rosaline downs several alcoholic drinks on different occasions. Someone compares being in love to being inebriated.
It’s implied that a courier is a drug dealer (he delivers a “special” package to a lord and appears to be perpetually high).
Women are generally expected to be seen, not heard. Several people are scandalized when Rosaline and other women begin to speak up for themselves. Rosaline is mocked for her ambition to become a cartographer, and even Romeo expects her to become a homemaker and mother while he pursues his poetry.
Marriage is seen as transactional. Rosaline wishes to marry for love but is told that most people actually marry for money, status, land or even just nicer living quarters. And even though Rosaline is still quite young, she’s expected to marry soon since she’s almost “too old” to wed.
Rosaline’s nursemaid, Janet, is an actual nurse, but she’s treated as little more than a servant. (Rosaline’s father is shocked to learn that “Nurse” isn’t her name but her profession.)
People lie. Janet and others help several young couples sneak around behind their parents’ backs. Rosaline and other young people in the film can act spoiled, not appreciating the fact that they live very comfortable lives as nobles. Some people steal some horses.
To frighten off a suitor, Rosaline makes a scene by pretending to have an imaginary friend. She tells her father she’d rather “eat goat innards” and “bathe in filth” than meet another suitor.
A woman nearly falls because she is too proud to accept a helping hand. A few young adults speak quite rudely to their parents. Two people run away to elope. Rosaline picks a man’s pocket to get his knife twice.
A couple that rushed into marriage realizes after the fact that they have nothing in common.
Romeo tells Rosaline early on (you know, before he meets Juliet and runs away with her), “They’ll be saying our names for centuries.”
Well, Rosaline may have been usurped by Juliet, but she’s OK with that. After all, what she gets is much better than anything Romeo could have offered her: recognition from her father, freedom to pursue her passions, an understanding of true love and fulfillment of that love.
Rosaline isn’t a perfect tale though.
Inspired by Rebecca Serle’s book, When You Were Mine, this retelling of Shakespeare’s classic tale has some harsh language, sexual innuendo and mild violence to watch out for.
And though the story is set in Verona “a long time ago,” there are some very modern characters here. Paris is a gay man who proposes to Juliet to hide his sexuality (though he never intends to actually marry her). Meanwhile, Steve the Courier serves as Verona’s drug dealer. And it’s clear he partakes of the product he peddles.
With all of that in mind, families should exercise caution before settling down to watch this reimagination of the woman Romeo was supposed to fall in love with.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
