Deus nos Acuda!

"Dear God" is a movie the whole family can enjoy. Despite a predictable plot and an ending anyone can spot a mile away, the overall ensemble acting and dialogue are surprisingly fresh and sometimes poignant. The conversion of Tom from a conniving con who thought of every angle to profit himself to a do-gooder is gradual and quite convincing, avoiding a common pitfall of many feel-good movies. Jaded cynics may sneer at the religious tone, but it is actually not about any religion but about the uplifting experience one can gain by helping each other.

The cast of Kinnear, Metcalf, Pitillo mixed with old pros like Conway, Elizondo and Browne really deliver. Conway is especially enjoyable, a scene stealer up to his old tricks, and Metcalf is deliriously wacky. A special mention goes to the director, Gary Marshall, using subtle yet funny touch to parody the American media and court system. Overall, this movie is very delightful for everyone who is not a total cynic. Rating: 8/10.

Everyone's already hit the main points in the other reviews. I wanted to add that this is a movie with a lot of heart and high ambitions, that it doesn't quite achieve. Although it has likable characters and the zaniness is fun, the premises are trite and the script stretches credibility to the breaking point. In the end I decided to receive it on the "dumb but fun" channel, rather than turn it off, and made it through.

Someone else here said, "I didn't hate it, I just didn't like it." That about sums up my feelings, too.

But I wanted to leave a review to draw attention to Tim Conway's incredible performance. I'm not a giant fan of Conway's trademark burlesque, which worked wonders on Carol Burnett but is out of place in anything that's not an ensemble variety show (i.e., vaudeville). But here he's absolutely brilliant, playing a comedy archetype that is not however over the top. He sold the character with complexity and palpable sincerity and proved that he could in fact act, in the full sense of the word.

Watch this movie for him. I'm glad I did. I wish we could have seen him in many other such roles. Such a missed opportunity.

Tom (Greg Kinnear) is a petty conman who poses as a burn victim (among other things) to elicit money from innocent bystanders. He has quite a reputation around town so law enforcement goes to some length to catch him in the act. Brought in front of a judge, she decrees that he will get a real job or end up in the pokey. So, a job it is for him. Tom has his eye on a pretty lady named Gloria, anyway, so it might help his image with her, too. Strings are pulled to get him into the postal service's dead letter office. Once there, surrounded by kind and interesting people, he begins to turn his life around. He even reads some of the letters addressed to God and performs random acts of kindness. What could be wrong with that? This movie leaves the viewer with feelings of great joy. Kinnear is a charmer, in every way, and with cast members such as Maria Pitillo, Tim Conway, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Hector Elizondo, he is in great company. The script has a buoyant message to give about helping others, only to receive kindness back in return. How nice the settings and costumes are, too. A love story develops quietly for any viewer who longs for comedies with romance. This film is recommended for individuals or families who need their faith restored in humanity, but who also enjoy laughter and nonsense along the way.

What do you get when you watch a 1996 PG film in 2021? An ambitious story with poorly contrived scenarios and over the top silly antics with a feel-good ending. It was a time when American society lived in a bubble and the film's idea of what a Dear God letter might ask for were mostly trivial, where even the more profound requests were turned into some kind of schlapshtick (Trivia: no longer in the dictionaries but it's not actually spelled slapstick originally; Schlap is German meaning to laugh so hard you fall apart, & shtick is a kind of comedy delivery). But in their effort to make it a PG film, we can understand why there wasn't anything too deep or too emoted. But being a PG film, it does make you wonder if you want your kids exposed to the con man situations such as fake bandages on the hands to trick someone into providing cab fare. It does have a good message so I give it 6 stars. But I'm not really sure it's a good family film and yet it's almost too trivial and contrived for adults to enjoy. But it's probably far better than what most kids watch today with zero supervision.

Tom Turner is a small time con-man making a living off passengers at train stations etc. When he is caught and sent to trial he is sentenced to jail time or to get a full time job and earn his own money. He gets a job in the dead letter office at the post office where undeliverable letters are sorted by category. When trying to steal valuables to help pay off his gambling debts he accidentally puts them in a envelope in reply to a "Dear God" letter. When the money helps some people to fix problems with their block of flats and improve security his colleagues think he did it on purpose and begin to answer some other "Dear God" letters. However how far can they go without being discovered as the media begin to pick up on the miracles.

This is a very gentle comedy that struggles with being overly sentimental in the second half. The story is quite unlikely but the film is gentle enough that the slight plot is not really a major problem. Nor is it very unlikely - you won't be surprised to learn that every learns important lessons about life at the end. The comedy is also very slight, it has some laugh out loud moments but outside of this it also has an overall funny feel to the film that is quite nice.

Greg Kinnear is not a leading man, but he does a reasonably good job here. Out of his colleagues Metcalf is good and John Seda (of Homicide:LOTS) gives a different performance! The cast is also fleshed out by some nice cameos from Larry Miller and Jack Klugman (better known as Quincy). Elizondo has the best small role as the Post Officer manager who slips quietly away mid-conversation unnoticed.

Overall a gentle comedy that eventually gets bogged down by being too sentimental. It really could have benefited from having a more cynical edge.