THE LOVE LETTER (Dreamworks)
There's one in every fiction workshop in college: the divorced mom who's come back to school after 20 years to take some classes to help her get started on her novel, which, as fate would have it, turns out to be about a divorced mom who comes back to school after 20 years, wows her fellow classmates, catches the eye of a hunky young professor and, most importantly turns out a truly brilliant novel. Give one of these aspiring authors half a chance and she might turn out something like "The Love Letter," a flaccid romantic comedy that proves once and for all that (a) Kate Capshaw lacks the charisma to carry a film on her own; (b) Tom Selleck should seriously consider setting up "Magnum P.I. '99" instead of continuing to try to pass himself off as a leading man on the big screen; and (c) it's time for Ellen DeGeneres to finally move beyond the wink-wink lesbian jokes. Intended as an ode to the power of words, "Letter" is rarely worth listening to, let alone watching, and matters aren't helped by slice-and-dice editing that sometimes makes you wonder if the camera started rolling in mid-scene or shut off before director Peter Ho-San Chan called "cut." After awhile, the movie's utter lack of continuity becomes much funnier than any of its attempts at humor. "Letter" is set in Loblolly By-The-Sea, the kind of provincial New England town that exists only in lousy movies, a place where everyone is intimately familiar with the plot of "Tosca," the local cinema runs a Buster Keaton festival and the divorcee owner of a used book store can somehow afford a sprawling mansion full of antiques. The divorcee in question is Helen (Capshaw) who's managed to make it to her 40s while still retaining the self-conscious tics of a schoolgirl. She's forever tugging at her turtlenecks, wiping her nose with her hand and scurrying mouse-like from room to room. For reasons known only to screenwriter Maria Maggenti, most of the Loblolly men find this kind of behavior irresistibly sexy, and when Helen comes across an anonymous love letter brimming with passionate prose, she can't imagine which of her bashful admirers might have sent it. Or perhaps -- since the letter had no addressee -- it was meant for Helen's co-worker Janet (DeGeneres), a good-time gal who'd love to kindle some flames with fireman George (Selleck). But George is hot for Helen, who's somehow certain college student Johnny (Tom Everett Scott) is her secret Romeo. The May-September affair that develops between Helen and Johnny is a fairly interesting plot development -- especially since Scott is by far the least irritating member of the cast -- but Maggenti doesn't seem to have any idea what to do with it. So "Letter" soon drops that story thread in favor of giving us entirely too much information about Helen mom's (Blythe Danner) and Grandma (Gloria Stuart), both of whom are introduced with a burst of piccolo music so you'll know right off the bat they're a nutty pair. No, eccentricity is not in short supply here; as for laughs, charm and passion, that's another story. James Sanford
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews