The Love Letter
|
List Price: Our Price: $19.15 You Save: $0.83 (4%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $19.12 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Love Letter
Movie Review: great
Summary: 5 Stars
What a great movie,This will be the fifth time i am watching it.I will be watching it a few more times.Movie Review: Thoroughly Enchanting.
Summary: 4 Stars
This wonderful Hallmark Hall of Fame television film was adapted from a short story from the master of time travel novels, Jack Finney ("Time and Again", "Time After Time", "About Time", "From Time to Time", just to name a few). This story by Finney delves once again with time, in that a modern-day young man named Scott (played by Campbell Scott) discovers a letter hidden in a secret compartment of an antique desk that he had just purchased. The letter (as well as the antique desk) belonged to a woman named Elizabeth (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) who (at the time of her writings) is living during the civil war.Scott becomes so enchanted by the letter that he ends writing to her, and after some obsession, and on a lark, actually decides to mail his response at a post office with historical significance using an authentic-period one-cent stamp. Shortly thereafter, and to his utter astonishment, he discovers a second letter in the hidden compartment. This letter turns out to be her reply to his letter...and thus begins a fascinating relationship of two people falling in love, but separated not by distance, but by 130 some odd years of time.
Although this may seem to be a "You've Got Mail" with a time twist, it is really more similar to "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and "Somewhere in Time". Believe me, if you liked either one of those films, you'll love "The Love Letter". This fantasy/drama pulls you in and keeps you pleasantly entranced all the way to the end. While this film does suffer a bit from situations handled too simplistically, I'm such a sucker for this type of film that I quickly forgave these missteps.
Both Campbell Scott and Jennifer Jason Leigh were pretty good in this film, but the standout performance (and the one most believable) was Daphne Ashbrook who played Scott's fiancée.
While this small film may pale in comparison to the typical big budget Hollywood films, it is, nonetheless, a film I think you will be delighted to have in your collection. My main concern, however, is the quality of the dvd. I've had difficulty with dvd's by Artisan Entertainment before, and so I did with this one (blurry on certain scenes and pretty jumpy). If you've had good luck with them (could be my player), by all means go get it (or maybe it might be wise to get the VHS instead). Between 1 and 10, "The Love Letter" (which feels like a breath of fresh air) deserves a solid 8.
Movie Review: I Admit It - I Like It
Summary: 4 Stars
OK, I hate using this term, but I will, only because there is not a better one to use: this is definitely a "chick flick."
But I like it, too.
Time travel is a fascinating subject to me and, unfortunately, most male oriented movies on the subject tend to leave me a bit empty (except 'Final Countdown' which is awesome!). 'The Love Letter' is not time travel per se - no one actually travels through time...or do they? The dream sequences seem to tell another story, as does the very end when the dog walker enters the picture.
But, passing letters through time is a unique way of presenting a time travel story. I just wonder why modern day Scott couldn't send his mail in the same way 1860's Elizabeth does - through the secret compartment in the desk.
Accuracy must have been a priority for the director and producer in portraying the scenes from the past, as the language, the clothing, and the sets are among the best I have seen and heard and would put them against most period flicks. Even the short Battle of Gettysburg sequence was done very well.
There are a number of twists and turns throughout this movie to warrant repeated viewings - I'm on my third and I seem to catch something new each time. I think my very favorite 'twist' is near the end of the film, during the 'trunk' scene. The look on the caretaker's face upon looking inside is priceless.
The other part that particularly strikes me is when Scott (in the modern day) has a publisher friend read an 1860's poetry verse that Elizabeth wrote, and the friend laughingly knocks it as being archaic, which angers Scott. Although not presented as such, to me that's part of the problem with today's society: it's that to be successful in today's jaded times one must be sexually explicit and/or violent. True passionate expression is a lost art.
I do not care for the fact that Scott actually leaves his fiance for the 1860's 'ghost.' There is no reason for him to leave her; she is a very likable person. It almost makes Scott seem like a heel.
But, of course, the way the movie ends, the breakup had to happen to complete the final twist.
Women will love this movie. And guys?...well...there are a few of us that like movies like this, as well as the Gettysburg/Braveheart variety. If nothing else, your wife, girlfriend, significant feminine other will appreciate you watching it with them.
You might just like it.
Movie Review: Incredible time-travel romance that rivals Somewhere in Time
Summary: 4 Stars
Growing up with Somewhere in Time (Collector's Edition), I was intrigued by Hallmark Hall of Fame's Love Letter, based on a haunting 1959 short story by Jack Finney. Scott Corrigan is a Civil War buff who designs Civil War simulation games (check out the 1998 computer graphics!). One day as he and his fiancee Debra are shopping for a vintage wedding gown, he discovers an antique desk and it's love at first sight, even though he can't really afford it. Scott's also a restorer in his spare time, so when he tries to polish the desk, he discovers the (common Civil War) feature of a hidden compartment that contains a small bottle of ink, a fountain pen, and some blank stationary addressed "Elizabeth Whitcomb." He also finds a sensual, romantic letter to the imaginary man of Elizabeth's dreams, and Scott actually drafts a response using Elizabeth's pen and stationary. Scott's free spirit mother Beatrice is excited about the prospect, and finds vintage 1-cent stamps. Feeling crazy, Scott mails the letter from an Antebellum post office.
And here's where the story takes a magical turn: hoping against hope, Scott opens the secret compartment to find a response, and he and Lizzie begin a romantic correspondence across time. The film does a beautiful job with the Civil War-era furnishings and costuming, and Jennifer Jason Leigh is positively radiant as Lizzie, although she is clearly older than Lizzie, whose age is given as 29. Campbell Scott is riveting as a man coming to grips with the fact that he's essentially in love with a ghost; just as in his later performance in Follow The Stars Home, he's a master at using glances and body language to convey emotion without overacting.
Fans of Somewhere in Time will likely be drawn to Love Letter, but both stories are unique. I would have to say that Love Letter is much more bittersweet, but no less enjoyable. The DVD also features a "making of" feature.
Movie Review: A Nice Story
Summary: 4 Stars
This is surely a nice film, despite the absolutely fantastic premise of corresponding back in time. I first saw only the last half on the Hallmark Channel and was so enthralled that I bought the DVD so I could enjoy the entire story. It is at the same time both delightful and heartbreaking, and the glorious New England autumn only increases the nostalgia. But back to the story, I never could figure out why he had to mail letters to her, why couldn't he just put them in the desk like she did? Otherwise, I do think this is one of the better movies Hallmark has produced and well worth owning. If you are interested in another book that divides it's time between the Civil War and the present, read "The Lattimer Legend," one of my all time favorites.