Escroc malgré lui

I just love this movie. It is funny and heartwarming. It has a happy ending. Laurie Metcalf is unforgettable along with a stellar cast. It may not be the best movie but it is fun to watch and enjoy. Tim Conway is unbelievable as a burned out postman. Laurie Metcalf as a burned out lawyer. Greg Kinnear who joins this zany group of people who are ordinary and do something to make themselves extraordinary people. It gives you a warm feeling by the end of the movie. Please rent or buy this movie. It's fun for the whole family. I love watching Rue McClanahan and Jack Klugman. The story might be flawed but it's always worth watching especially around the holidays when you need a little cheering up to do. Greg Kinnear is a good actor who is working at being a good film actor.

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.

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.

When letters written to God start getting results, and replies, people everywhere are amazed. The Post Office, however, is annoyed.

Siskel & Ebert gave the film two thumbs down upon its release. James Berardinelli gave the film one star and explained, "At least after seeing this movie, I understand where the title came from – starting about thirty minutes into this interminable, unfunny feature, I began looking at my watch every few minutes and thinking, 'Dear God, is this ever going to end?'" I have to agree, and maybe I'm being a little generous with my 5. This is probably closer to a 4, because it really isn't very funny, and as one person so aptly said, it "drowns in its own sentimentality". I suppose the bonus point will be for having David Hasselhoff and Elvira show up, even if only for a second. Tony Danza, as well. But if I ever see this movie again (I hope not), it will probably lose a star.

"Dear God" is so painstakingly boring, manipulative and predictable it's hard to watch despite some decent yet watered down performances by those onboard the project.

Greg Kinnear plays a young slacker who is innocently arrested and sentenced to finding a job--yes, finding a job--by the bad guy from "Total Recall," who doesn't look like he's having a very good time making this movie. Kinnear takes a job at a local post office and gets a spot in the Dead Letter Department, where all the letters to Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy, and God are sorted and thrown out.

But as Kinnear avoids his odd co-workers, he finds himself wanting to respond to the "Dear God" letters, hence the title of the film--big surprise--"Dear God."

Kinnear's character is extremely obnoxious and annoying. At times the filmmakers want us to feel sorry for the Innocent Young Man Going Through Turbulent Times, but then the character does things that are inexcusibly ignorant and unbiased. For example, take a scene where Kinnear is on trial. We're supposed to feel sorry for him. But the next moment he's up in the judge's face making wise cracks and disobeying all courtroom procedures. This is supposed to amuse the audience. Yeah, right.

The film's jokes are about as tired as every other average comedy out there. Too many scenes do not expand to their full potential, and instead we get scenes like the "Stand behind the yellow line" gag that not only goes on WAYYY too long, but has been done a million times before in a million different films.

The characters are not only weak, but one-dimensional and totally distant: We can't feel for any of them one way or another.

The characters' dialogue is about as stiff and stereotypical as it can get: You feel like the writers were trying to think of corny dialogue. And boy, if that's what they were looking for, they got it right.

"Dear God" had a good premise with promising potential, but due to a half-baked, sentimentally-controlling script, unlikable characters and an awful sense of humor, this film fails miserably at what it promises us.

1.5/5 stars -

John Ulmer