“Romeo and Juliet” tells the classic tale of two rival houses, the Capulets and the Montagues, who have, for many centuries, loathed each other. During a party set up by Lord Capulet (Damian Lewis), Romeo (Douglas Booth) and Juliet (Hailee Steinfeld) meet and fall in love at first sight. The thing is, they are from enemy houses, and that is socially not done.

This film basically makes it clear that Hollywood is stagnating. New stories are not being produced, so studios have to make use of ones that have been told over and over again.

The problem with this adaptation of Shakespeare’s play is it’s pretty lifeless. We all know the story and the ultimate fate of our leads, but the way the tale is told is what is supposed to keep us attached, make us love the characters, and eventually make us tear up in the final minutes. But I did not. The film is painfully dull and too sappy to be entertaining.

The script doesn’t take its time to look at what it has in front of it; it spits out chunk after chunk of Shakespeare’s dialogue, and it all comes out clunky to the audience’s ears. When adapting a classic, you must fit it to the period presented. Sure, that dialogue works, but it’s hard for the average viewer to comprehend.

The thing that makes “Romeo and Juliet” even the slightest bit watchable is its sets. They are beautiful and well crafted and suit the film, making it feel more or less real.

Our leads are convincing, but no more than average. Hailee Steinfeld, though very talented, was not able to overcome her stiff dialogue, and Douglas Booth should have been given better material. One must also note the distracting age difference between these two. However accurate, it’s very uncomfortable to watch them fall in love.

The film runs at an unbearable length of two hours, and with a total lack of editing, it slowly becomes unmanageable. You get lost among long lines of melodramatic dialogue that could have been reduced to a few snippets. There’s just too much talking and not enough action to suit the length.

I wanted to like “Romeo and Juliet.” Its sets are beautiful, and leads Steinfeld and Booth are mostly convincing, but the dull script proves the fatal poison. It gives the cast wooden dialogue and provides a sense of soupy melodrama that pervades the entire two-hour film for a painful experience.