The Letters (2014)

The Age of Commercialism

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Absolutely Fantastic

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The Letters is a biographical film about Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta based on the letters of 50-year correspondence with her longtime friend and spiritual adviser,Father Celeste van Exem. It stars Juliet Stevenson as Mother Theresa together with Max von Sydow, Rutger Hauer and Priya Darshini.The story starts when Mother Teresa is honored to be a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for being one of the greatest humanitarians of our time.Millions are touched due to her selfless commitment that have changed their hearts and inspired them to be the extension of Christ's work particularly charity and helping the poor.Then a story is told from the point-of-view of Fr.Celeste who recounts her life from her work,how she started her own charity cause,the political oppression she experience in aiding the poor and her love for Christ.We could have been treated to a good film if there was more research done on Mother Teresa.Too bad that we just have the same information that is probably already known by many people around the world.Added to that,there is not much depth in too the characters as well.In the end,it simply became a watchable fare about the saint.

Disclaimer: I was a small investor in this film (I was cold-called about the film 7 years ago when Bill Riead was in the early stages of making the movie, and decided it was a good project). So I have a small financial interest in this movie.I add that I am not catholic (nor even religious), and knew little about mother teresa before I saw this film, so I have no connection to the church, or mother teresa's particular cause.As to the movie, let me start by saying the movie is not a great piece of filmmaking, and has obvious flaws. For example, the narration is stiff and tiresome in places, and the script feels unsophisticated compared to what we're used to these days.ON THE OTHER HAND, despite its flaws, I found the movie to be quite powerful. I think the professional critics have really missed something here. I find it hard to believe that anyone could watch this movie and not be inspired by what this woman did, under the conditions that she did it. If you don't feel like crying at times, then you must have a hard heart. :-) The suffering of those people was off-scale, as was the personal sacrifice of mother teresa, who had to fight to be released from her cush job as a nun/teacher at a fancy girls school, to give her life to the poorest, sickest rejects of society. We should all be more like her.I also want to plug some of the acting: I thought Stevenson was strong (within the limitations of the script), but it was many of the Indian actors (previously unknown to me) who stood out as charismatic and excellent.Bottom line: lower your expectations as to the entertainment value of the film, and go see it for the way it will make you feel. And take your kids -- it's a very good message.

While I am and always have been a huge fan of Mother Teresa and all of her incredible works and accomplishments, I was sorely disappointed in THE LETTERS which is nothing more than "b" movie quality and in no way does Mother Teresa justice. It also pales tremendously in comparison to the 2003 film, MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA, Starring Acting Great, Olivia Hussey, which has become loved by so many. Ms. Hussey captures the very essence and spirit of Mother Teresa. It is nothing less than amazing to watch Ms. Hussey's transformation emotionally, physically and spiritually as she moves through the film. MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA is the ONLY film that is endorsed by the Missionaries of Charity and Mother's only living relative Agi Bijaxiou. PBS plays Mother Teresa of Calcutta frequently as the quality and performances in this film are superior and on point throughout. Unsurprisingly, THE LETTERS is another rip-off disappointment which is so typical of this wanna-be producer/director who seems miserably and embarrassingly incapable of delivering period, much less delivering anything unique and of quality. If you have an interest in Mother Teresa and you want to truly experience her essence to the fullest, pick up a copy of Mother Teresa of Calcutta Starring Olivia Hussey.

I am ticked off that I was fooled by the bogus positive reviews of The Letters. These reviews were obviously written by someone with an interest in this haphazard of a film.......and I use the term "film" loosely.This was nothing more than a senseless piece of gibberish with obviously no thought or planning. The writer/director, and again I use those terms EXTREMELY loosely should be burring his head in the sand for even releasing such a travesty. People who do this should be held accountable for deceiving the public into paying money to see something that should never have been made to begin with. The Letters is not even worth your time to watch if it gets to television. Shame on the loser who wrote and directed this. You are being called out. Read the real reviews and then go hide under a rock and stay there.