The Love Letter

Starring: Kate Capshaw, Tom Everett Scott, Tom Selleck and Ellen DeGeneres. 88 min., PG-13

Before I start my review, let me give you an idea of why The Love Letter is getting such a big push. The film is distributed by Dreamworks owned by Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg. Now, Steven Spielberg is married to and had seven children with Kate Capshaw, who coincidentally is the star of this film. Welcome to Hollywood!

The Love Letter stars Kate Capshaw as a somewhat depressed, bookstore owner, (what is it with films and bookstores in the past year?) who one faithful dat day finds an anonymously written love note in the cushion of her couch. She asumes that the letter is intended for her and sets out to find the man who desires her so. Through process of elimination she concludes it must be the college boy (Scott) and invites him to dinner. To make a boring plot short, he finds the letter, thinks she wrote it for him, others find, think the same thing yada, yada, yada. Why not throw in another letter. Wow, that didn't do anything to help the plot. Hell let's add another suitor, played by Selleck. Crap, that didn't work either, what should we do know. Bring in Ellen, maybe the four of five people who watched the finale of her show will want to see what she's doing now. Sure!

This film tries to capture a satire that works for so many comedies, but it never really takes off. It floats somewhere between offensive comedy and stupid humour, minus the laughs. Kate Capshaw has such great potential, but needs to choose more wisely if she ever expects to reach the next level of stardom. I also have some other suggestions for the other stars:

Tom Selleck: quit the NRA to avoid being yelled at by Rosie O'Donnell so that you can actually plug your films on television; read the script before accepting roles

Tom Everett Scott: MAKE A GOOD MOVIE, you haven't since That Thing You Do, films like this will not help your resume

Ellen DeGeneres: go back to tv, you don't belong on the big screen, you are a comedian not an actresses

So much talent wasted on so little a script. If you need romance see Notting Hill. Rating: D

Don't agree with my review, e-mail me at [email protected].

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