Gnomeo (James McAvoy) and Juliette (Emily Blunt) are lawn gnomes in adjacent back yards, each a member of a rival family that’s been warring forever, each smart and free-spirited. They meet late at night on separate clandestine missions to sabotage each others’ yard, they fall in love, their families continue feuding. They seek each other out; they’re aided and abetted by an abandoned plastic lawn flamingo (Jim Cummings). Fighting ensues (broken gnomes’ heads, then outright broken gnomes), the young couple retreats, yadda yadda, you can fill in the blanks. Except, since G-rated family movies routinely proscribe mutual suicide scenes, maybe you can’t.
What makes the movie work, as opposed to serving as a fill-in-the-love-story-pattern template, is a fast and genuinely moving story, memorable characters and a suitable amount of action. McAvoy and Blunt don’t pander to their audience—they’re witty and fun, as opposed to clichéd and predictable. Juliette, instead of a nurse, gets fountain frog mentor Nanette (Ashley Jensen), played to hysterical perfection. Jason Statham makes a wonderfully hateful Tybalt, riding a souped-up lawn mower in a drag race with Gnomeo that would do James Dean proud, and carrying himself much like Statham does in his latest bash-em-up-mate action movie. Only here, he seems to enjoy caricaturing himself.
It wouldn’t be a Shakespeare adaptation, even a children’s one, without at least a few of the Bard’s allusions. What’s nice about them is they don’t trip over the story. When we get a glimpse of the big prowling bulldog that wanders between the yards, we know it’s only a matter of time before someone yells at it, “Out, out, damned Spot!” but such references will doubtless sail harmlessly over the youngsters’ heads without pause. Other tribute scenes toed the line of risqué pretty well. My personal favorite was Nanette lying on a bed of roses à la Mena Suvari in American Beauty, fantasizing about Juliette’s obligatory suitor Paris (Stephen Merchant). Don’t worry. It’s totally family-friendly.
The cameos are fun too: Hulk Hogan is a riot as a TV announcer hawking a lawn mower on steroids for the Blue gnomes’ climactic showdown. Michael Caine and Maggie Smith manage some nice onscreen chemistry as the young couple’s bickering parents, even for the limited amount of time they’re featured. Ozzy Osbourne makes a great reindeer. Patrick Stewart even pulls off an appearance as Bill Shakespeare himself (well, sort of). And the Elton John/Bernie Taupin soundtrack, a nice remix of their best tunes with some new material, fits the movie like a glove.
Truthfully, Touchstone Pictures hasn’t broken any new ground here. The Toy Story series showed what happened to abandoned toys, and now we’ve got to worry about our lawn ornaments getting lonely. Great. But at least the old ground of star-crossed lovers, goofy sidekicks with accents and retro music is revisited so nicely.
