Written and Directed by Amy
Holden Jones. Starring
Jamie Lee Curtis and James Keach, with Matt Clark, Amy Madigan and Bud Cort. 1984,
98 min., Rated R (for nudity and nudity and more nudity, and a liberal
sprinkling of sex).
"Love
Letters" is a rinse and repeat kind of movie. The characters listen to Chopin
and then have sex. Then they listen to more Chopin and have more sex.
Occasionally they stop listening to Chopin and having sex long enough to stare
plaintively out a window. Come to think of it, Chopin might be playing as they
stare.
Who are
these people, with their classical music and compulsive fornication? They are
Anna Winter (Anna like a character you might find in a Bergman movie, and Winter
like … well, come on, you're not that stupid, are you?) and Oliver Andrews.
They are played by Jamie Lee Curtis, fresh from her roles in a string of horror
movies, and James Keach, fresh from a decade's worth of bit parts on crappy TV
shows. Anna works for a publicly funded radio station, speaking softly into the
microphone and spinning her favorite pieces of classical music. James Keach
works as a photographer, the kind you might mistake for an artist because of his
neatly trimmed facial hair and gentle demeanor, though we're given little
indication he has any kind of talent. The older Oliver is married with
children. Anna, who is in her early twenties, is not. He visits the radio
station and is drawn to her. Anna, who spends much of her time looking pensive
and taking off her shirt, soon responds to his attentions, perhaps because the
only other man with a serious place in her life is her father, a widower who
gets drunk and says strange things about Asian people.
This is, as
I hinted, a Bergman rip-off, complete with bleak scenery and lines like, "I'm
sick of my life and its intolerable contradictions!" Because the turgid affair
between the photographer and the disc jockey isn't enough to keep us occupied, a
subplot is introduced. After an uncomfortable dinner with her emotionally
distant father, Anna goes through her mother's belongings and discovers a
collection of love letters she exchanged with a mystery man during her
marriage. Parallels are drawn between the mother's frustrated love affair and
Anna's own increasingly messy relationship with Oliver, and new career
opportunities for Anna threaten to tear the illicit couple apart.
Written and
directed by Roger Corman protégé Amy Holden Jones, who two years earlier
directed the lifeless "Slumber Party Massacre" and almost a decade later hit pay
dirt by writing the children's movie "Beethoven," "Love Letters" isn't as easy
to write off as it sounds. Jamie Lee Curtis gives a strong performance, bravely
delivering lines no actor should ever be forced to utter; at one point Anna
admits to Oliver, "I want you to want me." Alas, she does not follow it up with
any mention of needing him to need her. Curtis also fearlessly bares her chest
about 3,000 times in the course of 90 something minutes – something her costar
Keach also does several times, to somewhat different effect. The conviction she shows in her
shallowly written role is enough to keep you watching and it is clear that
Jones, despite the weak screenplay, genuinely cares for the character. Also
known as "Passion Play."
"Love Letters"
is currently out out-of-print on DVD. [A note about the DVD: Released as a
cheapie, no-frills disc with a terribly faded transfer, the DVD was criticized
by fans for supposedly excising more than 10 minutes of footage included in the
film's theatrical release. The outrage seems to have to do with nudity and
sexual content. I have not seen the original cut - I was not yet 1 when it
was first released, and no doubt busy catching up with Bertolucci and Antonioni films
- so I'm completely in the dark about what exactly is missing.] It is also
out-of-print on VHS, though used copies can be obtained under both of the film's
titles,
"Love
Letters" and
"Passion Play."
is currently out out-of-print on DVD. [A note about the DVD: Released as a
cheapie, no-frills disc with a terribly faded transfer, the DVD was criticized
by fans for supposedly excising more than 10 minutes of footage included in the
film's theatrical release. The outrage seems to have to do with nudity and
sexual content. I have not seen the original cut - I was not yet 1 when it
was first released, and no doubt busy catching up with Bertolucci and Antonioni films
- so I'm completely in the dark about what exactly is missing.] It is also
out-of-print on VHS, though used copies can be obtained under both of the film's
titles,
"Love
Letters" and
"Passion Play."