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THE LOVE LETTER Send This Review to a Friend
Alfred Hitchcock used what he called the "MacGuffin" a device on which a story turned. The letter in "The Love Letter," the film adaptation of Cathleen Schine's novel, has such a function. The discovery of an unsigned love letter by Helen, a bookstore operator in a New England town sets off emotions and events that are the main purpose of this entertaining, low-key drama.
I haven't read this novel by Schine, but what I have read of her work reflects sensitivity, delicacy and wit. The pleasure of this charming film lies in its easy-going nature that takes its time in developing character and relationships without histrionics, which suggests that screenwriter Maria Maggenti and director Peter Ho-sun Chan did reasonably right by the author.
Kate Capshaw does exceedingly well as Helen. She's interesting to watch and she firmly establishes the character of the divorcee who thinks the passionate letter is addressed to her, as do others who see it. Soon she is having a love affair with her summer helper in the bookstore, a university student named Johnny (Tom Everett Scott), less than half her age. Ellen DeGeneres as the acerbic Janet also works in the bookstore.
Tom Selleck, looking a bit paunchy, plays George, in the throes of getting a divorce and sweet on Helen going back to their youth, when an unread note (not the love letter in question) could have changed their lives. Nothing much, yet everything, happens as the film eases along toward the sorting out of relationships, including the lives of Helen's mother (Blythe Danner) and Geraldine McEwan as Miss Scattergoods, another key character. If Scattergoods seems a too cute name, there's more--the town is called Loblolly-by-the-Sea.
This isn't a film for those who demand rip-roaring drama. Its endearing quality depends precisely on its understatement. A DreamWorks Pictures release.
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