6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A story of love and obsession. A young radio personality who, after her mother dies, discovers she had been having a love affair for 15 years. Now she finds herself recreating her mother's romance by getting involved with a married man.
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Bonnie Bartlett, Matt Clark, James Keach, Amy MadiganThriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In the early 1980s, actress Jamie Lee Curtis found herself in a difficult career position. She broke through with 1978’s “Halloween,” and continued to collect work in horror, starring in “Prom Night,” “Terror Train,” “The Fog,” and “Halloween II,” becoming a “scream queen” to many, developing her screen presence in a typically permissive genre. For 1983’s “Love Letters,” Curtis elects to step away from maniacal pursuit, testing her dramatic chops with a dark tale of romantic obsession, written and directed by Amy Holden Jones, who was also dealing with reputation issues, having previously helmed “The Slumber Party Massacre.” Curtis visibly works on her dramatic potential in the picture, doing well with Jones’s writing, which imagines a crisis of the heart when a woman in need of magical love finds a partner who denies her everything except pleasures of the flesh. Stalker cinema eventually receives a workout in the third act, but “Love Letters” is a surprisingly effective take on desperation, with Curtis offering a welcomingly reserved take on a nervous breakdown.
Billed as a "Brand new 2K scan of the original 88 min version," "Love Letters" comes to Blu-ray with an AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation. While technical details haven't been included on the packaging, the viewing experience struggles with delineation, losing facial information for key confrontations. Also, mosquito noise issues are present throughout. Detail is acceptable in spots, highlighting period outfits and sheer eveningwear, and facial particulars are noted, including reshoots, with Keach's beard spray-painted gray. A few Californian locations retain dimension, and interiors explore decoration with domestic visits and radio station tours. Colors are maintained, delivering brighter neighborhood visits, and primaries do well with costuming, securing period outfits. Greenery does fine, and skintones are natural. Source is largely free of severe wear and tear, only dealing with mild speckling and scratches.
The 2.0 DTS-HD MA mix has some age-related issues, offering periodic sibilance issues and hiss throughout. Dialogue exchanges are acceptable, capturing emotional intensity and hushed exchanges of longing. Scoring is satisfactory, with reasonably defined instrumentation, especially for piano- based moods. Atmospherics aren't sharp, but community activity and beach life is present.
"Love Letters" doesn't always find the most compelling ways to deal with Anna's insecurity, but Jones doesn't destroy her movie either, preserving some dimensionality to the character as she faces her father's nastiness, receives a job opportunity in San Francisco, and absorbs the reality of Maggie's adult pursuits, getting to know her mother in a new way. This isn't a sweet film or a scary one, as Jones successfully creates dramatic evenness to the picture, also pulling fine work from Curtis, who takes the acting challenge seriously, setting out to prove she can do more than look panicked for 90 minutes (1983's "Trading Places" also exposed her comedic side). She's good here, presenting enough vulnerability and emotional deflation to capture Anna's turbulent ride of fantasy as it crashes into reality.
2002
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