Did you fall in love in 1957?

Then you might like the movie Letters to Juliet, starring Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Egan, Gael García Bernal. And if you're my age, the only name on that list you recognized is Vanessa Redgrave--but you may not recognize her. When you see her, you'll realize just how old we are!

Actually, I can't tell you much about the movie which came out in mid-May which we saw on a Sunday night at the Lakeside Orchestra Hall (movie theater). Between the British accents and Italian, and then the distractions of the extremely noisy ceiling fans and the two giggling 20-somethings sitting behind us, we really might as well have worn ear plugs.

But the general idea is that Amanda's character (Sophie) and Bernal's character (Victor) are engaged, but both are busy doing other things--he's a chef and she's a researcher and they are on a "pre-honeymoon" in Tuscany region of Italy (which is why I wanted to see it). She finds a group of "secretaries" who answer letters from the love-challenged. She comes across a hidden letter written in 1957 about Lorenzo, from a Brit named Claire--they had fallen in love as teenagers and she had to go home. Well, if I got the story over all the noise, the rest is a comedy as Charlie (Claire's grandson), Sophie and Claire scour the countryside looking for Lorenzo. Finally, Claire spots a young teenager working in the fields and declares that's him--and it was Lorenzo's grandson. The guy who plays Lorenzo is Redgrave's real life husband. Happily ever after ending, unless you liked Victor, who loses out, but he really cared more about food and his restaurant, so he didn't really lose.

I hadn't met my husband yet in 1957, but I did fall in love that summer. His name was Tim. No, wait . . . Jim. No . . . Jerry, or was it Terry? Anyway, it was a great time to be in love and write letters.