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Would someone please help me figure out what the hell happened in this one. Was he really her husband. And whats with the letters and all?

no idea..

I've been looking for discussion about the same thing. I'm about to go watch it again but what I am concluding so far is that he was the husband and he was in love with his wife but because he read the letters he becomes unsure of what he was first convinced and deceives himself into believing that he knew Anna through the letters. Like a picture we see of ourselves as a child and though we have no memory of a certain event we create a memory using the photographs. Anna becomes most distraught when she discovers his denial and determination to become a successful child hanging out with his friends--glad they don't know what he went through.

I didn't want to see the film and it distressed me when I read about it in the video store. I was disturbed at the idea of a child making the emotional investment in a role that can only be considered adult in nature and what that would do to him later on. I heard that some people voice concern over the bath scene which I thought was silliness. Of course they didn't put them naked in the tub together. I'm sure though that the child will see the film in many progressing stages over the years--like a camera coming into focus and he'll wonder at what he did so young. I thought the performances were outstanding. The dialogue was certainly lacking but that only gave it believability. I read in another review that "Anna" and "Shawn" didn't have "chemistry" and that just made me retch. What kind of idiot would write such a thing? They were not meant to have chemistry. The point was simply that he was Shawn and he had come to the point of realizing who he was and who Anna was and wanted the unconditional love he had experienced before--he was grasping at deep familiarity and longing for the wholeness or completeness he had once had with Anna. I thought it was outstanding except for the toll it may have taken on such a young actor. Would the film have been as interesting if both the characters had been older? There is another film with a similar premise called "P.S."

I guess I'll copy this and past it to IM since it's been so long since you posted.