THE LOVE LETTER (1999)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
I would pick "The Love Letter" as the worst romantic comedy ever made if it hadn't been for the exquisite photography. This is a beautiful bad movie and, even if remarkable images are sometimes a good reason to see a film, something of some substance should support said images. There is more substance in the substance-free short film "Mothlight" by the late avante-garde filmmaker, Stan Brakhage, than anything inthe "The Love Letter."
Kate Capshaw is Helen, a divorced bookstore owner living in a New England picture-postcard town. She has no real social life, mostly jogs, and is envious of others who go on dates including her best friend, Janet (Ellen DeGeneres). One day, Helen finds a love letter and assumes it is for her eyes. She thinks her 20-year-old employee at the bookstore wrote it, and thus a short courtship ensues. But then
Helen imagines every person she comes in contact with is reading lines from the letter. And there is Tom Selleck, minus his mustache, as a fireman and Helen's former high-school flame. And the letter gets passed around to the different townsfolk, and blah, blah, blah.
Capshaw seems too restrained and bored for this kind of material - she was far more dynamic in "Windy City" and "A Little Sex" than here. Tom Selleck merely shows up and smiles with that familiar grin. Ellen DeGeneres is wasted as the comic relief, though nothing she says is remotely funny. Julianne Nicholson as another young bookstore employee fares better but her role is severely trimmed.
"The Love Letter" has some astounding photography - it works as an advertisement for New England's fishing docks. As a movie, it has no sense of romance and is devoid of humor or drama or any reason for its existence. Just visit New England instead.
