THE LOVE LETTER
US, 1999, 88 minutes, Colour.
Kate Capshaw, Blythe Danner, Ellen De Generes, Julieanne Nicholson, Tom Everett Scott, Tom Selleck, Gloria Stuart, Feraldine Mc Ewan, Alice Drummond, Jessica Capshaw.
Directed by Peter Chan.
The Love Letter is a summertime romance film, a summer story set on the Atlantic coast. However, its target audience is older rather than younger.
The film was produced by it star, Kate Capshaw (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Just Cause). She appears as a bookseller who finds a love letter and tries to trace who wrote it and to whom. Various people in the bookstore as well as around the seaside town interpret the letter as for themselves. However, the final explanation is somewhat unexpected.
The film relies on a very strong cast. Blythe Danner appears momentarily as Capshaw’s mother, only to return with the solution to the love letter at the end. Ellen Degeneres appears as someone desperate for a love letter as she works for Capshaw in the bookshop. The younger cast include Julianne Nicholson and Tom Everett Scott, a young man who works in the bookshop during the summer. In the background is Tom Selleck who has always been in love with Capshaw. Veterans Gloria Stuart (The Old Dark House in the 1930s to Titanic in the 1990s), Alice Drummond and Geraldine Mc Ewan (TV’s Miss Marple) also appear.
The film was directed by Peter Chan, the Bangkok-born director who worked during the 1990s in Hong Kong, directing a number of films and whose Hong Kong film, Perhaps Love (2005), was a hit success.
Slight, romantic – more like what used to be called “a woman’s picture”.
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1.The appeal of this kind of film? Romance? Marriage?
2.The setting, the town, the sea, the bookshop, homes? A realistic atmosphere? Musical score – and the range of songs interspersed throughout the film commenting on the themes?
3.The title, the letter itself, its contents, Helen finding it, Janet finding it, Johnny finding it? The irony of Miss Scattergoods writing it to Lilian? Helen tearing it up, her grandmother putting it together again?
4.Helen, divorced, her daughter, going to summer camp? Lonely, repressed? Alienation from her mother? Her mother and grandmother travelling? Her running the shop, the friendship with Janet for so long? George and his return to the town, exploring their past? The attraction towards Johnny? Jennifer working in the shop? The letter, the interaction with Johnny, rivalry on the jogging, insulting him about his smell, changing her attitude, the meals, the sexual encounter? His falling in love with her? The effect? Her mother’s return? Knowing what was happening, the truth about the letter? Her bond with her grandmother? The reconciliation with her mother – and her mother not blaming her? The meeting with George, reflections, a future?
5.Lilian, her absence from the town, her travelling with her mother, the postcards? The reality of the relationship, Helen’s father and her love for him, with Miss Scattergoods, moving out? The bonds between the two, the letter?
6.Johnny, student, working at the shop, attracted towards Helen, the letter, the meal, peeling the orange…? Jogging, the meals, in the shop? Helen insulting him, the apology? His hopes for the future, giving up his studies? Helen urging him to go?
7.Jennifer, her feminist observations, working in the shop? Friendship with Johnny, the dates? Introducing her friend? Her being hurt? Shaving her head? In the shop, the summer, writing the thesis, giving it to Johnny as a present?
8.Janet, her talk, with friends? Lonely? Helen’s criticism of her being late? Working in the shop? The finding of the letter, Helen’s reaction, the fight, their not talking, the final reconciliation?
9.George, his family, the divorce, Helen’s interactions with him, his buying the books, the rescue of the deer? His work around the town? His friendship with Janet? The past, the postcard, Helen discovering it, telling him the truth? His feeling rejected? The future?
10.The people in the town, the postal clerk and the discussion about the postcards with Johnny? The officer and his pulling up Helen after her speeding? The various incidents in the town, the passing of the summer?
11.The bittersweet aspects of love and relationships?
