The Love Letter Review
by Michael Redman (redman AT indepen DOT com)July 9th, 1999
Letter sweet, but could use re-write
The Love Letter
A Film Review By Michael Redman
Copyright 1999 By Michael Redman
A good love letter is hard to beat. Of course it's always nice to know who it's from. In the small New England coastal town of Loblolly-By-The-Sea, no one even knows who it's to.
Helen (Kate Capshaw) finds the letter between the cushions of her couch as she's sorting mail. Assuming it's meant for her, she comes up with two likely suspects: old friend George (Tom Selleck) or her college-aged employee Johnny (Tom Everett Scott). The missive gets around and jump-starts a few other lovers.
The film is daring in a few quiet ways. Helen is forty-ish. Her romance with the kid is believable and, like much of the movie, very European. Hollywood is slowly, but surely, discovering that women past the age of 25 can not only be beautiful, but legitimate objects of desire. Capshaw is a honey and Helen is intelligent and witty. It's no wonder Johnny falls into bed with her at a moment's notice.
But it's obvious there's something of a problem. "I've never felt this way before," he tells her. "Of course not," she responds, "You're only 20."
Much of the tale seems a bit too familiar. Maybe if we hadn't recently seen "You've Got Mail" and "Message In A Bottle", the anonymous letter notion might seem clever. Like Meg Ryan's character, Helen is even a small bookstore owner with too many employees and few customers.
Selleck doesn't add much to the film. The most interesting person in the town is Miss Scattergoods (Geraldine McEwan), an older eccentric who uses a 4th Of July sparkler to light her cigarette. Unfortunately she's only on screen for a few moments. Ellen DeGeneres as Helen's friend Janet gets in some good lines.
At times "Love Letter" is like a gentle breeze from that New England shore, but it's not a very fresh breeze.
[The appeared in the 6/24/99 "Bloomington Independent", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted to Redman@indepen.com]
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