The Love Letter **** (1999, Kate Capshaw, Tom Everett Scott, Tom Selleck, Gloria Stuart, Ellen DeGeneres, Blythe Danner, Geraldine McEwan) – Classic Movie Review 4569

In the sleepy New England town of Loblolly by the Sea, well-preserved, middle-aged, local store-owner Helen MacFarquhar (Kate Capshaw) finds a mysterious love letter hidden in her sofa, and it makes her open to romance, falling for handsome young Johnny (Tom Everett Scott), who thinks she wrote it to him, and she soon thinks he wrote it to her. George (Tom Selleck), an old friend from Helen’s past, also turns up.

A marvellously on-form cast motors director Peter Ho-Sun Chan’s adorably sweet 1999 movie about a love letter that changes lives in a small American community. It has a rare charm to spare.

A magnet for all romantics, it is an exquisite little labour of love from producer Capshaw, who gives herself a stonking star part that she just eats up.

Maria Maggenti writes the screenplay based on the novel by Cathleen Schine.

It also stars Gloria Stuart, Ellen DeGeneres, Blythe Danner, Geraldine McEwan, and Julianne Nicholson.

Also in the cast are Bill Buell, Alice Drummond (as the postal clerk), Erik Jensen, Margaret Ann Brady, Jessica Capshaw, Walter Covell, Patrick Donnelly, Lucas Hall, Christian Harmony and Christopher Nee.

Alice Drummond died on 30 November 2016, aged 88.

Geraldine McEwan died on 30 January 2015, aged 82.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4569

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