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Director: Peter Ho-Sun Chan Screenplay: Maria Maggenti, based on the Cathleen Schine novel Starring: Kate Capshaw, Ellen DeGeneres, Tom Selleck, Tom Everett Scott, Blythe Danner, Julianne Nicholson, Gloria Stuart, Geraldine McEwan Running Time: 88 minutes Studio: DreamWorks SKG MPAA Rating: R |
An anonymous love letter awakens passions in the sleepy seaside village of Loblolly-by-the-Sea, the setting of the DreamWorks romantic comedy The Love Letter, starring Kate Capshaw (the movie's producer) heading an ensemble cast.
Capshaw plays bookstore proprietor Helen MacFarquhar, a self-styled loser at love who greedily claims the love letter ass when she discovers it in a store sofa. The nature of the letter -- who wrote it and who it was intended for -- is of course obscured until the story's conclusion. Until then, it serves as the primary plot motivator, inspiring a May-September affair with a store employee Tom Everett Scott, a rift in Helen's friendship with her store manager, Janet (Ellen DeGeneres), and reawakens feelings in former high school suitor, George (Tom Selleck), the town's fireman.
An ensemble comedy is, obviously, only as strong as its ensemble. Though the performances are fine (Selleck is suitably dreamy; DeGeneres has a couple of good, punchy lines; Blythe Danner has a small, but pivotal, role as Capshaw's mother), no one is a standout. Capshaw undersells her role -- what could have become a steamy, passionate affair (even light, romantic comedies can fire real emotion) between Helen and Johnny (Tom Everett Scott) instead becomes a series of misadventures with no real heat.
Janet, in turn, thinks the letter is for her, having been written by George, who has been carrying a twenty-year torch for Helen. Perhaps it's supposed to be ironic that Scott has been alive for only as long as Selleck's fascination with the bookseller, but the irony is lost in the gimmick.
This description makes the movie sound more complex than it really is. Director Peter Ho-Sun Chan keeps things simple and doesn't overburden us with details about the town or the people who live in it. Beyond the ensemble cast, he presents us with three scenes following the sheriff, two for throwaway comic effect, one a touching scene involving his wife and a copy of the letter.
The real energy has been reserved for Helen's scenes with her mother and grandmother (Gloria Stuart). Old hurts are healed (a little too neatly, though) and the script gives us a glimpse into the source of Helen's insecurities. The scenes are too short and come too late, but are welcome, nonetheless. They offer a satisfaction and near-closure that the film's conclusion lacks. Selleck's character makes perfunctory decisions that seem rooted somewhere else than in his own character, DeGeneres never becomes defined beyond her wisecracking role, and Julianne Nicholson, the other store employee, is defined by her hopeless crush on Scott. (She becomes an unintentional emotional mirror for Tom Selleck's character, but the filmmakers don't capitalize on this development.)
