To me, this movie is perfection.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I am flabbergasted to see such good reviews for such a silly movie.Don't get me wrong, I love a good romance as much as the next girl, however this movie was, in my opinion, devoid of any true romance.First of all the male lead was utterly dull and emotionless and I battled to believe that he was truly in love. The actress that played Elizabeth was not much better, and thus the romance they were trying to portray just fell flat. Secondly, the love story itself was very unsatisfying. The two leads knew barely anything about each other, and had never met, yet they were suddenly madly in love after exchanging a couple of letters. Their entire relationship was shallow and insipid and not once was I rooting for their love to conquer all. Thirdly, this movie trivialized true love by making it seem as though it is only a feeling that descends upon us (we don't even need to know the person nor anything about them, but we can still be in 'true love' ). This is not 'true love' , but just wishful thinking.I must point out that it was indeed a clean movie and that is why I will give it 6 stars.

When I first saw this film in Hallmark Channel way back in 1999 or 2000 (I'm not sure about the year), I was in an internet romance/long-distance relationship. I was so fascinated with the movie since I somehow saw myself as Scott Corrigan (Campbell Scott) in that story (exchanging romantic messages). Thus, I recorded that movie. Every time I wrote my email messages to my internet romance, I was always watching this movie (the TV is located near my computer table). When I finally met my internet romance in person in 2001, I saw that our personalities did not really match, and I did not see myself as spending the rest of my life with her so we ended our relationship. I stopped watching this movie since then since it only reminded me of her. Last night, I was so bored thus I decided to go through my old tapes. Lo and behold, I saw this movie again. Though the excitement of romance is no longer there, I still enjoyed watching this movie. However,I just treated it as just like any other drama film. Still, I'd consider this as one of my favorites, considering that I'm into hard-action movies.

With a zillion channels to choose from today and only so much time, the first thing I do when I click by is check the actors. I came in today five minutes into this one and saw the name Campbell Scott. Everything he does is worth a look so I was tempted. I'm also a sucker for Jennifer Jason Leigh since I still vividly remember as a teenager enjoying her father Victor Morrow in Blackboard Jungle and of course feeling enraged later at his death due to someone's negligence on a set. I don't have much patience for romantic love stories but I said okay, I'll stick with it for a while.What a brilliant effort all the way around. I expected soap bubbles and got glue instead on the seat of my trousers. Riveting. I had long despaired of American-produced sci-fi -- the aliens always speak and understand English not Cantonese and their "future" values they seem to have gleaned reading yesterday's Los Angeles Times. This was sci-fi at its best, unobtrusively raising the deepest questions touching reality and in this case arriving at the answer that one of the greatest scientist of all times gave. Pierre Laplace postulated that if you could acquire sufficient knowledge, you could then know the position and movement of all the atoms in the universe, with all that implies. But on his deathbed he is reported to have put knowledge in perspective in terms of defining reality. He said all science is trifling, nothing was real but love.I'd give this a 10 but what bothered me were the stamps. Anyone who handled the letters would have noticed something curious about them and asked questions. Or did they change form in transit? And if that happened, why did Corrigan (Scott) go to the trouble of using pen and ink? Oh well, can't be picky, and perhaps in the original story by the Invasion of the Body Snatchers author, this was explained.

Some might think that this movie might be a little dumb (it's not the most original idea) or way too sentimental, and I'm surprised myself how much I enjoyed it (and continue to enjoy it -- for me, it stands up well to multiple viewings). I would think it owes much of its success to Jennifer Jason Leigh and Campbell Scott-- they're both so charming in their roles and are fully committed to making this fantastical story ring true. I think they are the heart of why I find myself liking this simple movie so very much.Another quality that adds to the enjoyment of the movie is the (seeming) attention to details in recreating Civil War era settings. There are for me a few glitches in the script that detract from the fantastical storyline and which could have been easily fixed to blend realism and fantasy more completely, but these are not large enough to mar the end result.