6 Acclaimed Films With Narratives That Relied On Several Plot Holes

6. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet

The tale of Verona's star crossed lovers in all its modern, MTV, glory; Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet was undoubtedly a solid adaptation of one of history's greatest plays. It portrayed the violence, angst, and desire for freedom present in all of the new Generation X, while maintaining the charisma and charm of Shakespeare's characters throughout the text. And besides, the film that helps launch the career of Homeland's brilliant Claire Danes, and the lesser know Leonardo DaVinci (or whatever his name is) must be pretty successful in what it aims to achieve.

Nevertheless, there's that ending. It's a sin. I simply can't clarify using words how much nonsense it portrays. As this would be a very poor section if I didn't, though, I'll still try (this bit will contain spoilers for the film).

So, let us look to the moment where Friar Lawrence comes to the horrifying possibility that Romeo may not have received his letter, which explained how Juliet was not dead for completely unknown circumstances. In a panic, he calls the postal service, asking if the letter had been delivered. But wait, let's rewind that, shall we? The Friar calls the Royal Mail. Honestly? I know, this was a major plot point in the actual play; but why couldn't Luhrmann not use the phone instead? This was the only time one was used throughout the entirety of the movie, so the questions such as 'why doesn't the richest boy in Verona have a cellphone?' could have easily been avoided. All Luhrmann had to do, was show the Friar at the post office while asking about the letter (he's there thirty seconds later anyway). But he doesn't. And now we're here.

Next, we have the finale itself. Romeo, heartbroken, discovers the body of his beloved bathed in flowers on the cathedral altar, oblivious to the plot the Friar has conducted. After having one last kiss, he drinks the poison he has been given, in order to carry their love through death itself. Ironically, Juliet wakes the split second afterwards, witnessing Romeo's death as the poison takes hold. With the vial empty, she elects to kill herself using Romeo's pistol, with the couple finally dying together, just as they had lived (*cough* for the past three days *cough*). The police then discover their bodies moments later, and condemn both Monatgue and Capulet for the deaths of their children.

However, without interviews, investigations, or even post mortems (which was proven when they were to bury the still living Juliet), how would Verona know what had happened in the church? Basically, they saw Romeo storm into the cathedral after a firefight with the city guard, then after a small time, they entered the place of worship to see the supposedly already dead Juliet with a bullet in her head, and a poisoned Romeo.

If anything, it looked as if Romeo had turned insane through his banishment, and rampaged through Verona with a car and a gun. He then maliciously broke down the cathedral door to, shot the corpse in the face, and then committed suicide. A final way of showing the optimum disrespect towards the family in which he hated.

In my humble opinion, that would have been the better ending. Moving on.