Most everyone, at one point in their lives, has been attracted to someone else who they thought was the cat's meow. You may even have entered into such a relationship with a person who you found unique, charmingly interesting and simply fun to be around.
Then reality set in, however, and you realized that you had blinders on and that the person didn't quite live up to their initial billing. Suddenly the chemistry was gone, the humor all but dried up and you sadly realized they just weren't that special.
Such is the case with "The Love Letter," a film that starts off in a winning fashion as it courts our approval and actively seeks our adoration. Once it's got it, though, the film begins to show its warts and all and quickly becomes nothing more than a mediocre and occasionally melodramatic picture as it quickly jettisons its strongest element that's described by the film's title.
Even so, there is fun to be had before our blinders come off and we see the film for what it truly is. Beyond the somewhat stereotypical small town elements -- the nosey townsfolk, the old dog always lying in the street, etc... and appropriate, but perhaps too obvious soundtrack selections -- "I'm in the Mood for Love," "Only the Lonely" and "Love Potion Number Nine" -- the film plays off the ages old notion of mistaken identity first used by the great Greek playwrights many eons ago. As such, it has the fun premise of people mistakenly believing they're the recipient of the anonymous love letter.
Case in point is a cute sequence where Helen -- ably played by Mrs. Spielberg herself, Kate Capshaw -- begins to imagine seeing and hearing others quoting lines from the letter she believes was intended for her. While some are obvious "suspects," the scene becomes fun when all of a sudden passing groups of people simultaneously start reciting the prose. Later scenes, such as Johnny trying to act out what he thinks were Helen's words, are also charmingly funny.
Although the film's commercials gave the appearance that everyone gets involved in the confusion, sadly that's not the case. Just when it appears that such romantic complications will begin wonderfully adding and piling up, director Peter Ho-Sun Chan (making his American film debut) and screenwriter Maria Maggenti ("The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love") -- working from the novel by Cathleen Schine -- pull the plug, apparently content with what has developed up to that point.
Despite there being just enough material at that moment to get the film through the rest of its hour and a half duration -- mainly involving Helen's decision of whom to pursue -- the viewer will certainly feel shortchanged. That's because that whole complication inducing love letter-on- the-loose element is abandoned just as it was starting to take off.
When Janet finds that letter and thinks that George left it for her, we're suddenly primed for what could, and should be a resulting comic tour de force. Suddenly we imagine a hilarious and tangled love web forming as more and more townsfolk fall prey to the mysterious letter and their subsequently aroused romantic hopes.
As such, we find ourselves hoping that person "a" will think that person "b" is the author, who in turn thinks it's person "c" who then believes person "a" is their secret pen pal. From that point on, the film would offer some incredibly funny moments, comic close calls, and plenty of crisscrossing romances in the tradition of the best mistaken identity stories.
Unfortunately, that doesn't happen. Helen immediately puts the kibosh on Janet's romantic hopes and the expected and anticipated escalation immediately stops there. Not surprisingly, a great deal of the film's humor also disappears at or near that point, and the film then coasts and/or limps toward its conclusion.
From that point, it begins to take on a more sickly sweet sentimental aura approaching that of Kevin Costner's thematically similar "Message in a Bottle" and must rely on its attractive, and relatively well-known cast and their performances to carry it across the finish line.
As Helen, the lonely divorcee, Kate Capshaw ("The Locusts," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom") delivers a fine comedic performance in a role that's somewhat akin to Mrs. Robinson's (of "The Graduate") shy sister. While hers is more of a reactive than proactive role and may be a bit too wishy-washy for some viewer's tastes, it's fun to see Capshaw back in a headlining performance.
Ellen DeGeneres ("Goodbye Lover," "Mr. Wrong"), on the other hand, never fully gets to run with her material, and as such, simply plays the same wisecracking, quick with the quip character she often inhabits (like on her TV show). Another TV veteran, Tom Selleck ("In & Out" TV's "Magnum P.I."), gets to play romantic "footsie" with his two leading ladies, but the chemistry never ignites between any of them and his fans may dislike him playing a vulnerable character who's been somewhat beaten down by life.
It is nice, however, to see Tom Everett Scott ("That Thing You Do") return to a halfway decent film after his appearances in the calamitous "Dead Man on Campus" and "An American Werewolf in Paris," and he provides for much of the film's goofy charm. Supporting takes from both Blythe Danner ("Mad City") and Gloria Stuart ("Titanic") are okay, but their characters' appearances come out of the blue and do absolutely nothing for the story except answer one crucial question about the letter.
Considering the talented cast and a funny, if somewhat familiar initial premise, it's too bad the filmmakers decided to drop the movie's best element and go for sentimentality instead of allowing it to develop into a broad, comic farce. Had the film continued to intertwine the characters and their mistaken hopes into a great big romantic knot, it might have been a blast watching everyone try to untangle themselves, but alas, that's not the case and this ultimately turns out to be just a mediocre romantic-based comedy.
As far as the disc itself, the visuals and aural components are above average but never outstanding, while the supplemental materials - including a fair number of deleted scenes - can best be described the same way.
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