This slight but effective romantic drama packs an unexpected punch, thanks to Vanessa Redgrave's nuanced performance. She plays elderly Englishwoman Claire, who's on the trail of a long-lost lover called Lorenzo in Verona, home of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. She has returned to the city with her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) after a letter she wrote 50 years ago and posted into a crack in the wall beneath Verona's famous balcony is found by aspiring novelist Sophie (Amanda Seyfried). Sophie is visiting the city with her preoccupied fiancé (Gael García Bernal), and hopes the discovery of the letter will provide a breakthrough for her writing. When Sophie is united with Claire, the two women scour the Tuscan countryside in an attempt to find Lorenzo, encountering all manner of false leads along the way. Nicely weighted performances and the beautiful Italian setting combine to make this an unassuming treat.

An American girl on vacation in Italy finds an unanswered "letter to Juliet" -- one of thousands of missives left at the fictional lover's Verona courtyard, which are typically answered by the "secretaries of Juliet" -- and she goes on a quest to find the lovers referenced in the letter.