The Love Letter (1998)
20th century computer games designer Scott, Civil War buff, buys an antique desk from that era and, while polishing it, he discovers a secret compartment in which sits an unmailed letter--a letter written by a young poet named Lizzie over a century earlier. Touched by her yearning for passion, he writes her back, egged on by his mystically inclined mother. Magically, his letter reaches Lizzie and they begin a correspondence that threatens Scott's impending marriage but promises to bring fulfilment to Lizzie. Spanning the Civil War to the present, the perils of Lizzie's war-torn situation threaten her safe passage into the future. Will their love endure the test of time?
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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Pretty Good
Great Film overall
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
This movie, The Love Letter" is one of my all time favorite television favorites. I really loved it...This movie had everything in a plot that I like in a movie...romance, history, and a mysterious twist..what more could one ask for? Additionally, the direction, acting, and dialogue was great. Campbell Scott and Jennifer Jason Leigh are such amazing actors. Although made in 1998, I only first saw the movie on television last year, but I bought a copy and have enjoyed it ever since. As I say, it ranks up there as one of my all-time favorite television romantic movies. I would love to see Hallmark make more of these types of romantic dramas as opposed to the real sappy ones they have been making lately.
When I first saw this film in Hallmark Channel way back in 1999 or 2000 (I'm not sure about the year), I was in an internet romance/long-distance relationship. I was so fascinated with the movie since I somehow saw myself as Scott Corrigan (Campbell Scott) in that story (exchanging romantic messages). Thus, I recorded that movie. Every time I wrote my email messages to my internet romance, I was always watching this movie (the TV is located near my computer table). When I finally met my internet romance in person in 2001, I saw that our personalities did not really match, and I did not see myself as spending the rest of my life with her so we ended our relationship. I stopped watching this movie since then since it only reminded me of her. Last night, I was so bored thus I decided to go through my old tapes. Lo and behold, I saw this movie again. Though the excitement of romance is no longer there, I still enjoyed watching this movie. However,I just treated it as just like any other drama film. Still, I'd consider this as one of my favorites, considering that I'm into hard-action movies.
With a zillion channels to choose from today and only so much time, the first thing I do when I click by is check the actors. I came in today five minutes into this one and saw the name Campbell Scott. Everything he does is worth a look so I was tempted. I'm also a sucker for Jennifer Jason Leigh since I still vividly remember as a teenager enjoying her father Victor Morrow in Blackboard Jungle and of course feeling enraged later at his death due to someone's negligence on a set. I don't have much patience for romantic love stories but I said okay, I'll stick with it for a while.What a brilliant effort all the way around. I expected soap bubbles and got glue instead on the seat of my trousers. Riveting. I had long despaired of American-produced sci-fi -- the aliens always speak and understand English not Cantonese and their "future" values they seem to have gleaned reading yesterday's Los Angeles Times. This was sci-fi at its best, unobtrusively raising the deepest questions touching reality and in this case arriving at the answer that one of the greatest scientist of all times gave. Pierre Laplace postulated that if you could acquire sufficient knowledge, you could then know the position and movement of all the atoms in the universe, with all that implies. But on his deathbed he is reported to have put knowledge in perspective in terms of defining reality. He said all science is trifling, nothing was real but love.I'd give this a 10 but what bothered me were the stamps. Anyone who handled the letters would have noticed something curious about them and asked questions. Or did they change form in transit? And if that happened, why did Corrigan (Scott) go to the trouble of using pen and ink? Oh well, can't be picky, and perhaps in the original story by the Invasion of the Body Snatchers author, this was explained.
It was amazing to turn to the Hallmark Channel for a break, and find the beginning of this movie. I said, oh boy, another Christopher Reeve "Somewhere in Time," - I'm not going to watch it, but it was such a pleasant break. A lovely, warm, romantic, sad, corny movie with great acting (David Dukes- War and Remembrance - was a marvelous pompous suitor). absolutely impossible plot, but heart warming, and when it ended, I was still bawling. I haven't figured out why. But Gettysburg, a hundred plus year old woman once a beautiful girl, the Civil War, a confused guy who invents computer games , was so oddball, that I loved it.. To escape into a fine fantasy romance, see this movie, and feel good about it. I rarely cry, but this simple little movie made for TV turned on my waterworks. Now, the garden is beautiful with iris, pansies and buckwheat mulch, and I'm back to the Kentucky Derby article which I hope will be heart warming for Giacomo and jockey Mike Smith. Watch this movie, and you'll do great things, too.