Red Letters (2000)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Awesome Movie

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Dennis Burke, a college professor, and a Nathaniel Hawthorne scholar, has a fine eye for beautiful young students. He has written a novel that is well regarded, especially by his young women. As the story begins, one of the students in his class threatens to expose him to the faculty. Dennis must make a decision right away to solve his problem: he will accept a position at a California college.Things start looking good for Dennis, finally. The class he is teaching has a great number of students, mostly female, no doubt impressed by the novel he wrote than their interest in Hawthorne. Settling into his new apartment, Dennis notices there is a lot of correspondence for the previous tenant. Trying to find out his new address, gets him nowhere. Dennis makes a tactical and moral error when he reads one of the letters address for the man that lived there before him.The letters are from Lydia, who turns out to be a prisoner. Intrigued, Dennis reads all of the letters that are quite explicit. He finds out this Lydia is trailer park trash, but goes after her. She, in turn, will get him into all sorts of problems, for she claims she is innocent for a crime she did not commit. She wants to prove her innocence and for that she plans to use Dennis."Red Letters" appears to have suffered a case of 'direct-to-cable' fate. Bradley Battersby, the director also contributed to the screenplay he wrote with Tom Hughes. The creators borrowed from other films about the same subject. The viewer has an inkling where the whole thing is going and the logic of Lydia's escape and subsequent revenge is stretched to the limit. We have always liked Peter Coyote. He is a versatile actor who had done better before. Nastassja Kinski's Lydia is not one of her best roles.

Like many other respondents, I ran across this genially goofy mystery while surfing and didn't expect to stick with it more than a few minutes. But it grabbed me from the beginning and held up almost to the end. Thanks to the person who noted that the film was shot in 21 days on a shoestring. That accounts for the gaps in the plot (like certain scenes that we expect to see but were probably never filmed). But the shoestring production makes the acting, the comic touches, and the overall unpredictability of the plot all the more impressive. The screenplay found some really ingenious things to do with these likable characters. It wouldn't work without excellent performances. The director strikes me as someone who really works well with actors. Coyote gives a really fine comic performance, showing more emotional range than he's usually allowed to. Balk, Piven, and Kinski are also very good. Ernie Hudson, who has played this cop role a dozen times, is a treat in the knowing and yet not smug notes he hits. You get the feeling he's seen it all, knows exactly where it's going, and will just let it get there before he steps in to mop things up. The film struck me as primarily a comedy (which is pretty much given away near the end by the little alligator in Pauly Shore's backyard wading pool)--but I'm surprised more respondents haven't noticed this. It had me consistently chuckling throughout. I guess I'm a sucker for these offbeat little films that you don't expect much from. But in the last few months, I've left the local multiplex shaking my head in disbelief that good filmmakers could make "big" thrillers as bad as Twisted and Taking Lives. Red Letters is a heck of a lot more fun to watch, and deserves more exposure.

OK,I make alot comments about Kinski movies,but everyone has their favorite artists. This movie is just fun from start to finish. And it does keep you on the edge of your seat. There doesn't seem to be a wasted moment in this movie; every scene is there for a reason. Just good film making and good acting all around. I think the title would make more sense if the prof's book had been explained in greater detail.

What a great cast and what a pathetic attempt at a film. The script is full of holes from beginning to end. Incoherent, not cohesive...utterly ridiculous. One of the most talented/beautiful actresses in the world (and I'm talking about Nastassja Kinski) is without a single memorable line here. Worse, she supposedly dyes her hair halfway thru the movie, but it's obvious she's just wearing a cheap black wig bought from a drag queen costume shop. The best moments are given to a character actor and his dog in the apartment building that lead actor Peter Coyote lives in. Fairuza Balk is photographed poorly, to boot. She looks like an overweight freshman who's pigged out at too many all-you-can-eat-student-cafeteria-buffets. I was so looking forward to this film. I WANTED to like it, but I think I'd rather watch Nastassja read the phone book, with her OWN hair.