🎬 Rosaline (2022)
Based on novel
Rosaline is a 2022 romantic comedy that cleverly reframes Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet through the eyes of the titular character, Romeo's first love who is famously mentioned in the play's opening scenes but never seen. Directed by Karen Maine and written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, the film adapts Rebecca Serle's 2012 young adult novel When You Were Mine, which itself was inspired by the Bard's tragedy. The movie, however, makes a significant shift from the book's contemporary high school setting, placing the action back in Renaissance Verona while retaining anachronistic modern dialogue and slang for comedic effect.
Kaitlyn Dever stars as Rosaline, an independent and sharp-witted young woman of House Capulet who has been secretly courting Romeo Montague. Her world unravels when her cousin Juliet catches Romeo's eye at the Capulet ball, setting off a chain of events that forces Rosaline to scheme, sabotage, and ultimately reconsider what she truly wants. The cast includes Isabela Merced as Juliet, Kyle Allen as Romeo, and Sean Teale as Dario Penza, a persistent suitor who challenges Rosaline's preconceptions about love. Bradley Whitford and Minnie Driver provide additional star power in supporting roles.
Where Serle's novel transplanted the story to a modern American high school, the film returns to a period setting while maintaining a thoroughly contemporary sensibility. This blend of corsets and colloquialisms distinguishes Rosaline from more traditional Shakespeare adaptations, positioning it as a playful, feminist revisionist comedy. The film premiered on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ internationally in October 2022, earning generally positive reviews for Dever's charismatic lead performance and the script's irreverent humor.
When You Were Mine is a 2012 young adult novel by American author Rebecca Serle. It presents a contemporary reimagining of William Shakespeare's classic tragedy Romeo and Juliet, told from the perspective of Rosaline, a character who is mentioned but never appears in the original play. The narrative transplants the star-crossed lovers into a modern American high school setting, where Rosaline Caplet is a senior whose life is upended when her cousin Juliet returns from abroad and immediately catches the eye of Rob Monteg, Rosaline's longtime crush and secret boyfriend.
The novel explores themes of love, betrayal, and self-discovery as Rosaline navigates the fallout of losing Rob to Juliet. Serle's debut work was praised for its witty voice and for giving agency to a traditionally overlooked female character. By centering Rosaline's experience, the book offers a fresh take on a familiar story, examining what happens to the girl who was left behind in one of literature's most famous love triangles.
When You Were Mine became a bestseller and helped establish Serle as a prominent voice in young adult fiction. Its clever premise of revisiting a canonical work from a marginalized character's viewpoint resonated with readers and critics alike, eventually attracting interest for a screen adaptation.
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career, believed to have been composed between 1591 and 1595. It tells the story of two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families in the Italian city of Verona. The play is among Shakespeare's most popular works and, alongside Hamlet, remains one of his most frequently performed plays.
The plot draws on a long tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. Shakespeare's immediate sources were Arthur Brooke's 1562 narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet and William Painter's 1567 prose version in Palace of Pleasure, both of which derived from an Italian tale by Matteo Bandello. Shakespeare expanded the story significantly, developing supporting characters like Mercutio and Paris, and employing a sophisticated poetic structure that shifts between comedy and tragedy.
The play was first published in a quarto edition in 1597, though this early text was of poor quality. A more authoritative version appeared in the 1599 quarto. The title characters have since become the archetypal young lovers in Western culture, and the play has inspired countless adaptations across opera, ballet, musical theatre, film, and television.
