Signed, Sealed, Delivered. (TV Movie 2013)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered.: Directed by Scott Smith. With Eric Mabius, Kristin Booth, Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, Geoff Gustafson. A two-hour backdoor pilot of the TV series with the same name that focuses on four postal workers who take it upon themselves to track down intended recipients of undeliverable mail.

“This is a lovely well thought-out movie, that is well directed and superbly acted by a talented cast, headed by one of my favourite actors, Eric Mabius. who I originally saw in The Crow: Salvation.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI really loved the idea of the u0026quot;Lost Letter Departmentu0026quot; whose sole job is to get the undelivered mail to where itu0026#39;s intended destination. If they cannot read the address on the envelope then they are allowed to open the letter, but they are only allowed to read as far as they need so they can deduce a delivery address, as itu0026#39;s a federal offense to tamper with mail.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn this case, though, they keep running into problems in determining the destination so they have to keep reading. As they do the viewer is shown the story of the letteru0026#39;s writer and becomes embroiled in their tale.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe reason this works is the juxtaposition of the two ongoing stories, as well as the different characters within each. It gives quite a lot of detail to keep you interested and entertained.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEric Mabius plays Oliver Ou0026#39;Toole who is a stuffed shirt, but with a heart of gold. He likes his rules and regulations though if thereu0026#39;s a logical explanation to circumnavigate the rules to get the desired outcome, then he will. He is a solid and strong character, a good lead.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eKristin Booth portrays Shane McInerney, u0026quot;Miss McInerneyu0026quot; as Oliver likes to call her and the chemistry between them is nice. She comes to the Lost Letter Department by accident and can only get redeployed to her desired department after a couple of months. Even though she isnu0026#39;t good at hiding her disappointment, itu0026#39;s Shane who is pivotal in pushing the investigation to its conclusion. Itu0026#39;s her curiosity and enthusiasm that help make her a well thought-out character.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThen you have the two u0026quot;Side-Kicksu0026quot; Rita Haywith and Norman Dorman, played nicely by Crystal Lowe and Geoff Gustafson. These are the u0026quot;Geeksu0026quot; of the Lost Letter Department, but add a depth to the team, which makes the show stronger.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEven though there are some adult issues represented in the story these are handled with maturity and in a light manner. This is not a doom and gloom show, and for that reason I loved it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat works really well is the great direction, it cannot be easy to intertwine two stories and keep it well paced and smooth. The director makes this look effortless, all adding to the enjoyability of the movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI would recommend this to everybody, especially the lovers of heart- warming tales.”