Photo DreamWorks Pictures

KATE Capshaw stars as Helen MacFarquhar in DreamWorks’ The Love Letter.

Retur

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Love Leiter to sender

@ The Love Letter xx
Starring Kate Capshaw,
Tom Selleck, Ellen
DeGeneres and Tom
Everett Scott.

Julie Crawford
Film Reviews

SO, was it marketing
savvy that made
DreamWorks release
The Love Letter in the
same week as that little
sci-fi flick, or were they
throwing in the towel
before the first round?

The towel gets my vote.
Firstly, because studio exees
nuust ve krewn they couldn’e
compete with the Star Wars
hysteria, and secondly because

‘ood back and saw their
movie for what it was: a fluffy
little film burdened with
remarkably underdeveloped
characters.

Lacklustre performances by
Tom Selleck, Kate Capshaw
and Ellen DeGeneres don’t
help matters: they look tired
and uninspired, not swept
away in the passion a love let-
ter is supposed to generate. If
they don’t care, why should
we}

Ads pramote the concept
thar the whole town is caught
up in the intrigue, which may
have made for a morc inter-
esting movie. But here’s how
things transpire: Helen
(Capshaw) is a lithe and sensi-
ble, 40-something woman
who owns a cosy New
England bookstore. When she
finds an anonymous love leater
between the sofa cushions in
her shop, reason flies out the
window and Helen assumes.
it’s for her.

Could it be from doting
fireman George (Selleck),
who's been in love with Helen
since high school? No, Helen
concludes that it must be
trom 20-year-old Johnny
(Tom Everett Scott, giving
one of the film’s better pertor-
mances) who’s working in her
bookstore for the summer.

The letter then finds its
way into Johnny’s hands. He
assumes it’s from Helen, and
after a few lingering looks
over book stacks the May-
September romance is off and
running.

en
SadabaSe Tae ee he Seale in ee ere lens

Meanwhile Helen’s chum
Janet (DeGeneres) also finds
the letter and hopefully claims
ownership, thinking George is
the author. The assumption
causes a rift berween the two
women, until Janet inexplica-
bly drops out of the game.

Minor details contuse the
plot: what was the purpose of
introducing the grandmother
who appeared out of nowhere
with all her furnicure? The
handyman running for mayor?
These were perhaps essential
and entertaining elements in
the book, but they were utter-
ly ignored in the making of
the film.

Helen’s ultimate choice of
partner seems more resigna-
tion than revelation, and the
fetter-writer’s identity, while a
guirky nvist to an otherwise
plodding plot, comes out of
left Geld.

Overall the film has the
pace of a TV movie, with gaps
where the commercials are to
be inserted.

Ifyou really don't care if
the Empire Struck Back or
Struck Out, read a book; or
better vet, compose your own
love letter — both options
would be time better spent
than sitting through this dis-
appointing movie.

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