La lettre de Kelly

TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL meets THE NOTEBOOK in this engaging Hallmark TV movie about how the employees of the Dead Letter Office of the Postal Service reunite lovers and solve a murder.

Although Daphne Zuniga is top-billed in this movie, she has a small supporting role. The actual leads are Eric Mabius as the tight-buttoned head of a local Dead Letter Office and Kristin Booth as the computer specialist misassigned to his staff. There is a bit of friction between them as Mabius plays his role like Clifton Webb.

The situations are engaging and the actors play their roles with a lot of charm. As this has been heralded as the pilot for a proposed Hallmark TV series, it looks as if it will take some time for the writers and actors to settle into the characters and situations, but the premise is certainly engaging enough to warrant to effort.

A dedicated team of lost-mail detectives enters an unpredictable world where letters and packages from the past save lives, solve crimes, reunite old loves, and change futures by arriving late, but always miraculously on time. The team is led by the charming and idiosyncratic Oliver (Eric Mabius), who still considers the stamped and mailed letter to be the gold standard of human communication. Together with his team of lost letter experts, free-spirited Rita (Crystal Lowe), oddly-intuitive Norman (Geoff Gustafson) and newcomer no-nonsense Shane (Kristin Booth) they embark on a risky and unorthodox way, beginning with a chance to clear the name of a wrongfully accused man and reconnect him with the love of his life.

I love Hallmark movies, but even I know that they are a bit too cheesy for most people. Every once in a while however, they produce a little gem. This movie is just that. It's sweet and quirky and has a happy ending, but there's also a decent script, a lovely love story and good acting.

Both my husband and I enjoyed this movie very much. We didn't know until after we watched it that it was the pilot for a series. We are looking forward to seeing more entertaining stories with this wonderful cast. I don't know if the US Post Office actually has a Dead Letter Office, but the portrayal of this concept was charming.

It is so refreshing in this day and age to have something interesting to watch that doesn't revolve around violence and crime. It had great writing with enough little twists and turns to keep things interesting. We have seen Eric Mabius in other Hallmark movies. He does such a great job. All of the actors were perfectly cast. We highly recommend this movie.

I just watched the movie on DVD and loved it. It was fun and thoughtful. It was also clean, intelligent and entertaining. I actually have relatives who have worked for the Post Office so I could relate to it and the characters both. This kind of movie is a rarity in today's world. (If I hadn't given up T.V. years ago, I might have watched the series.) I usually find Hallmark movies too light and syrupy and unrealistic...but this one was well done. I highly recommend it.

This is a lovely well thought-out movie, that is well directed and superbly acted by a talented cast, headed by one of my favourite actors, Eric Mabius. who I originally saw in The Crow: Salvation.

I really loved the idea of the "Lost Letter Department" whose sole job is to get the undelivered mail to where it's intended destination. If they cannot read the address on the envelope then they are allowed to open the letter, but they are only allowed to read as far as they need so they can deduce a delivery address, as it's a federal offense to tamper with mail.

In this case, though, they keep running into problems in determining the destination so they have to keep reading. As they do the viewer is shown the story of the letter's writer and becomes embroiled in their tale.

The reason this works is the juxtaposition of the two ongoing stories, as well as the different characters within each. It gives quite a lot of detail to keep you interested and entertained.

Eric Mabius plays Oliver O'Toole who is a stuffed shirt, but with a heart of gold. He likes his rules and regulations though if there's a logical explanation to circumnavigate the rules to get the desired outcome, then he will. He is a solid and strong character, a good lead.

Kristin Booth portrays Shane McInerney, "Miss McInerney" as Oliver likes to call her and the chemistry between them is nice. She comes to the Lost Letter Department by accident and can only get redeployed to her desired department after a couple of months. Even though she isn't good at hiding her disappointment, it's Shane who is pivotal in pushing the investigation to its conclusion. It's her curiosity and enthusiasm that help make her a well thought-out character.

Then you have the two "Side-Kicks" Rita Haywith and Norman Dorman, played nicely by Crystal Lowe and Geoff Gustafson. These are the "Geeks" of the Lost Letter Department, but add a depth to the team, which makes the show stronger.

Even though there are some adult issues represented in the story these are handled with maturity and in a light manner. This is not a doom and gloom show, and for that reason I loved it.

What works really well is the great direction, it cannot be easy to intertwine two stories and keep it well paced and smooth. The director makes this look effortless, all adding to the enjoyability of the movie.

I would recommend this to everybody, especially the lovers of heart- warming tales.