Saw "The Love Letter" (not to be
confused with "Love Letters" though it surely willl be)
last night. Mildly enjoyable.
Mrs. Spielberg stars as a bookstore owner in a
jewl-like small town. Lonely, at loose ends, but very, very testy
and off-putting -- though of course she doesn't want to be.
Gwyneth's mother plays her mother, and Gloria Stuart (hilarious)
plays her grandmother. Ellen plays her bookstore co-worker; a (gasp!)
heterosexual (deliberatley unconvincing.) Julianne Nicholson
plays a winning baby-dyke. And then there's Tom Everett Scott (of
"That Thing You Do")as an adorable, sexy goofball who
has a "Devil the Flesh" thing going with Mrs. Spielberg.
His combination of goofy and sexy is unbeatable. Tom Selleck pops
in as well as a divorced father who loves Mrs. Spielberg as well,
but his timing is always off. Altogether a sweet deliberately
minor film that Dreamworks is wisely releasing as
counterprogramming to that George Lucas flick whose name escapes
me at the moment. While the kids are getting their brains fried
on interstellar nonsense, Mom can slip off to an ajoining room in
the multiplex to relax with this.
