Rosaline is a modern take on Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, with very modern sensibilities among some of its characters. The title character particularly, the eponymous Rosaline (Kaitlyn Dever), has 21st century notions about a woman's place in the world, romance, education and such. Others, including her father (Bradley Whitford) and her cousin Tybalt (Alistair Toovey), have more traditional, Elizabethan ideals and a firm view of a woman's proper role and station.

Rosaline's forbidden romance with Romeo (remember, she is Juliet's cousin and therefore also a Capulet) is actually kind of sweet and refreshing, with even her no-nonsense ideals swept away just a bit by Romeo's flowery prose. Can these two plucky young lovers make it work when their families are at war?

Of course not. It's nearly 20 minutes in before Romeo (Kyle Allen) meets Juliet (Isabela Merced), and that's only because Rosaline was late to the ball because she was forced to meet yet another suitor, the roguish Dario (Sean Teale). Faithless lad that he is, Romeo immediately forgets his previous love at the site of fresh prey.

Ultimately, the tragic part of Shakespeare's play occurs only because of Rosaline's jealousy and her attempts to win back Romeo's affections.

The story progresses from there largely the way you might remember from the famous play, but this time Rosaline and Dario are at the heart of the action, along with Rosaline's loyal nurse Janet (Minnie Driver), each trying their best to manipulate events and prevent all those needless deaths.

The movie has a definite similarity in humor and style to Heath Ledger's A Knight's Tale, even down to the use of modern music in ancient settings. The story approaches the plot of Romeo & Juliet much the way Tom Stoppard rewrote Hamlet years earlier in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. Like Stoppard did then, the writers here place the usual protagonists on the sidelines and put minor characters up front.

There are some missteps, like the completely unnecessary and off-putting stoner Steve the Courier (Nico Hiraga), who as his name suggests delivers messages. But for the most part it works. Rosaline is sweet and fun and funny.

There's a great play by Ann-Marie MacDonald titled Good Night, Desdemona (Good Morning, Juliet), which posits that both Romeo & Juliet and Othello began their literary lives as comedies but became tragedies because they lacked the wise fool character to point out the error of the protagonists' ways. This version of the story is certainly a comedy throughout, and Rosaline, in her way, provides the wisdom the other characters lacked.

And if the movie tweaks the ending just a little bit, who's to complain? It's worth it, if for no other reason than the priceless mid-credits scene that shows two characters awkwardly realizing they don't know each other very well.

Unfortunately, Rosaline is among the titles that Disney+ and Hulu decided to pull as a cost-saving measure (because the Disney empire is, as you know, desperate for funds) and the movie was not -- as of the time of this writing -- released for sale on DVD. Sadly, that means watching this gem might prove to be difficult in the immediate future. Let's hope they don't hide this one away in the vaults for too long. (I imagine a lot of high school English teachers would have a ball using this movie in the classroom.)