Return to Sender

It’s really astounding just how trashy Return to Sender eventually becomes, particularly given how distinctly non-trashy the film’s subject matter is. The story involves a former lawyer named Frank Nitzche (Aidan Quinn), who now earns a living writing to death row inmates and selling the letters after they’re executed. His latest mark, Charlotte Cory (Connie Nielsen), is scheduled to die for the murder of her boyfriend’s baby. But as Frank gets closer to Charlotte he becomes convinced that she’s innocent, and begins working with her lawyer (played by Kelly Preston) to clear her name. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Return to Sender‘s screenplay has been written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, a pair best known for their work on The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day. The film’s third act shenanigans – including a race against the clock to free Charlotte, a car chase, and even a sequence featuring a madman with a rifle – certainly seem like they’d be more at home in a high-octane action flick, and their placement here serves only to diminish the film’s anti-death penalty message. Yet there’s something oddly compelling about Return to Sender; primarily because it keeps one-upping itself with sleazy plot developments (think Melrose Place or The O.C.) On that level, the movie works – though it’s hard to believe director Bille August was going for that sort of vibe.

**1/2 out of ****