Waste of time

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

@ 36th Hong Kong International Film Festival"Love Letter: Dearest, Do you know how much in love with you I am? Did I trip? Did I stumble – lose my balance, graze my knee, graze my heart? I know I'm in love when I see you. I know when I long to see you, I'm on fire. Not a muscle has moved. Leaves hang unruffled by any breeze. The air is still. I have fallen in love without taking a step. You are all wrong for me and I know it, but I can no longer care for my thoughts unless they are thoughts of you. When I am close to you, I feel your hair brush my cheek when it does not. I look away from you sometimes, then I look back. When I tie my shoes, when I peel an orange, when I drive my car, when I lie down each night without you, I remain, Yours"Peter Chan's first venture into Hollywood was a massive cultural barrier. Not unlike, Wong Kar Wai's poorly executed, but well meaning "My Blueberry Night", the premise seems very much Korean and the idea of a love letter creating multiple opportunities of love is more corny and cheesy than believable. Seriously if you see an untitled love letter randomly on a table at someone's else home, it is very likely that you will take it seriously to heart and take it as a piece of salt instead. The answer is clear and the whole idea is flawed from the beginning. Here is how Chan works his magic on the audience and trick us to believe and takes us along the ride in a somewhat light hearted and slightly heart-warming view of nothing else than love.In one of Kate Capshaw's final on-screen display, she is ably casted as a single middle aged woman trying to find love again despite the odds. In fact the film would not have been watchable if not for Capshaw's performance and Chan's persistent style of direction. I have always called Chan a romantic director as he goes for the depth of characters and their stories in unprecedented details. Unfortunately, in this film, Chan is clearly lost in translation and its a definite shame.All in all, like most Asian directors cutting it out in the golden mountain of Hollywood, Chan is unable to replicate his best works. No matter how you see this film from whatever angle, for a Hollywood movie it is just too corny to connect with the Western audience and for the Asian audience we have seen too many Comrades, Alan and Eric and countless better cinematic experience. Still, Chan did not fully fail as some fun can still be had, except by his standards, this is an epic fail by all proportions….Neo rates it 5.5/10www.thehkneo.com

Although it's definitely an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours and it's always worth a watch, this film never quite meets the targets that it should for two reasons. Firstly, after the first forty-five minutes or so it focuses heavily on Helen and Johnny, who are far less interesting characters than most of the others - Janet, Jennifer, George and Miss Scattergoods are all much more enticing. Although at first this works, since in life we don't always know everything about everyone else, and because the point is being made that perhaps Helen is slightly self-involved, it quickly wears thin and we want to see more of the other characters.Secondly, the film seems to lose its way in terms of plot in the second half. The letter itself holds far less significance than it does in the first half and, again, although this works well in some ways, it seems odd to leave so much of the potential displayed in the first half behind.Overall, this film is sweet and good-natured, with some genuinely hilarious moments - for example, Janet explaining condiments to an avid audience. The lazy but quietly desperate atmosphere that Helen feels is heavy and the sense of living in a small seaside town is accurately portrayed, but the film isn't quite as intelligent as it's trying to be. It just misses being both a light romantic comedy and being a clever portrait of life. However, it's still good and if you get the chance, it's definitely worth seeing.

I hate watching films on TV beside my sleeping Better Half. You can't have the sound up as high as you'd want and the sound of her gently breathing (or "snoring" if you're being harsh) make me want to close my eyes as well. A feeling amplified many times whilst watching this dull romantic drama, which spent a lot of time going absolutely nowhere with what might have been a good premise.Helen (Kate Capshaw) runs an easy-going bookstore in a sleepy US coastal town, the sort of place where time goes by very slowly. Emotionally frigid and resolutely single, she finds a mysterious love letter in her post and believes it's for her. As her stony heart begins to melt, she begins a relationship with her work colleague Johnny (Tom Everett Scott) who both believe that the letter is meant for them. But is Johnny the author or is it Helen's long-time admirer George (Tom Selleck), who feels his last chance with Helen slipping away.This is one of those horrible films that never gets out of first gear. It's painfully slow, dragging on and on and way beyond the point where the viewer has figured out who the author and intended recipient actually is. And quite frankly, you don't really identify with any of the characters because they are little more than cold, wooden stereotypes. Surprisingly, Selleck probably provides the best of the performances but in truth, nobody looks like they're putting much effort into it - Selleck is basically playing his Richard character from "Friends" without a moustache. The comedic lines are few and far between and there is no chemistry at all between Capshaw & Scott, meaning it fails as a romantic film as well. So all it does is spend the film's duration telling it's story and by the time the credits have rolled by, you'd have already forgotten about it.Aside from the premise, I'm struggling to see what attracted such an experienced and talented cast to this boring snore-fest. This is a film so easy-going, it's damn-near comatose. Neither entertaining nor challenging, I cannot think of a reason why you should watch this hugely disappointing movie. "The Love Letter" is as dull and uninspired as its title and trust me, don't watch this film unless you are an insomniac or a fan of any old romantic dross on TV. Stick with stuff like "Notting Hill" which is predictable but infinitely more enjoyable. Right, I'm going back to bed...

Divorced single mom in picturesque seaside town finds an anonymous love letter and allows it to spur into action her dormant love life. Pet project for actress/co-producer Kate Capshaw, who gives a warm, nicely-modulated lead performance, yet this story is so slim and the direction and editing so erratic that a faint dissatisfaction creeps in. Initially, Capshaw's Helen envisions several of her friends reading the love letter to her (an interesting visual joke) but the first person they do this ploy with is Ellen DeGeneres, who doesn't play a lesbian but who comes off as one because of this gimmick. Different ideas are flayed about in the hopes that one would stick, and the continuity is extremely choppy. Supporting cast (including Tom Selleck and Tom Everett Scott, who mostly acts with his shirt off) is very good, but they can't save the final act, which is disappointing. Low-keyed, in a quirky, pleasant way, but it is blandly good-natured, nothing more. **1/2 from ****