An enemies-to-lovers storyline should have most romantic comedy fans hooked from the very start. The new Hulu movie Rosaline is, thankfully, no different. Starting with this knowledge is important—though the film is Romeo and Juliet adjacent, don’t expect this romp to have any elements of the star-crossed lovers trope. In fact, Rosaline messes around with that shtick, too.
“Meet Romeo’s ex,” posters for the movie tease. Those three words describe the plot better than anyone else could, really, as does the tagline: “The love story you know. The ex you don’t.” Rosaline follows, well, Rosaline (Kaitlyn Dever)—the throwaway character from Shakespeare’s original play, an ex of Romeo (Kyle Allen) who also happens to be a Capulet. When Rosaline’s beautiful, perfect cousin Juliet (Isabela Merced) falls in love with Rosaline’s man, chaos ensues.
Rosaline plays with history, as any lighthearted period piece should. Sure, there’s anachronistic music (a string rendition of “Dancing On My Own” by Robyn is ripped straight from Bridgerton). But Rosaline also teases Romeo for his antiquated speech; characters are canonically queer; and the ending isn’t quite as tragic as memory serves. But Romeo and Juliet’s core sparkle of young love, full of sneaking around at night and bad poetry, remains.
Though Rosaline harkens back to Romeo and Juliet, the story is loosely based on Rebecca Serles’ YA novel When You Were Mine. As any rom-com enthusiast knows, YA novels are rife with great chemistry—see To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging as examples—and Rosaline does not disappoint. Karen Maine, a writer on Jenny Slate’s hilarious dramedy Obvious Child and director of religious sex comedy Yes, God, Yes, is the perfect fit to direct Booksmart’s Dever in the frolicking comedy of errors. The pair keep the tone perfectly lighthearted, while still shedding light on the feminine struggle with stupid, stupid boys.
Though Shakespeare’s main set of characters return for Rosaline, none of them are exactly as one might remember. Romeo, who repeats soliloquies to different girls as if he were the fool mentioned in Olivia Rodrigo’s “deja vu,” comes off as an uncharismatic himbo. Juliet isn’t as innocent as we remember her to be. She’s prim, proper, and a beast at chess, but she’s ready to pull out the vicious side when it comes to protecting her boy Romeo.
Which is what she’s going to have to do, since Rosaline isn’t over the dolt quite yet. Rosaline—who, yes, whines all the time, but is more relatable than she is annoying—tricks her young cousin into buying ye olde “plenty of fish in the sea” bit. Why collapse at the sight of Romeo when there are hundreds of studs willing to buy you a beer at the local pub? This charade of convincing Juliet that Romeo’s a nobody goes on until Rosaline finds out Juliet and Romeo are still together, and Juliet discovers Rosaline’s many (unread) letters to Romeo.
Before the pair of cousins split, they share a close companionship. Sure, each has chemistry with her romantic partner—more on Rosaline’s in a bit—but for a glimmering 20 minutes, the girls play chess, gossip about boys, and enjoy cousinhood together. There’s rarely ever space for two women characters (especially those who are later pitted against each other) to boogie together in a rom-com, but akin to Clueless’ Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and Tai (Brittany Murphy), the two really hit their groove.
Still, Rosaline is an enemies-to-lovers flick, and as such, the best parts in the film come from the lead star and her heavenly male counterpart, Dario (Sean Teale). As Rosaline’s father (a perfectly subdued Bradley Whitford) plots to sell her off into marriage (this film would pair perfectly with Catherine Called Birdy), he still tries to be a good dad. In an attempt to appease his feisty daughter, he pairs her with hunky Dario—whom she, of course, hates.
Dario’s not Romeo. Instead, he’s far better. He’s hotter, more charismatic, and he’s not rambling on with bad poetry for hours. Dario is a man: He loves the sea, he loves drinking beer with pals, and he wants to show Rosaline the world. But the pair bicker constantly—a sure sign that someday soon, they’ll wake up with butterflies in their stomachs, realizing their clashes mean they’re more well-suited for each other than they previously thought.
Credit goes to Kaitlyn Dever for selling that growing connection—along with the whole film. Rosaline proves just how versatile the young actress is. Dever’s starred in darker stories like Short Term 12 and Unbelievable, but she’s also taken on more light-hearted fare, tackling the high school comedy in Booksmart and the upcoming splashy studio rom-com Ticket to Paradise. Grappling with intense feelings of love and loss, while still playfully bantering with her new fling, Dever is as watchable as ever in Rosaline.
After years and years of Romeo and Juliet spinoffs—we have our Baz Luhrmann, our Steven Spielberg, and our Stephen Sondheim; we even have our zombified Warm Bodies—it’s hard to believe there’s still an original take on the text. But Rosaline excels, never taking itself or Shakespeare too seriously, leading to a triumphant new rom-com with chemistry grander than the original couple’s. Yes, it bears repeating: Rosaline and Dario are better than Romeo and Juliet, a rare feat in the field of romance stories.
