Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002JC5TS

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally we can see it, October 15, 2007

By 

ChickFlickChick (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Letter Office (DVD)

I saw this movie more or less by accident on the IFC channel ages ago. After an extensive search I discovered that it could only be purchased from an Australian dealer and was only in a format that would not play on US electronics. Thus I am thrilled to finally see this little gem on the US market and be able to get a copy of my own. It's not for everyone, Netflix it before you commit. But if you like Indie, if you like Australian (specifically Miranda Otto who you can also check in Danny Deckchair),if you like a little summer/fall romance angst and a little cultural void/employer roadblock to a relationship thing you'll love it. It's a sweet little movie about a woman on a quest that has consumed her but in the end it was the journey that was the real answer.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Quirky Film from Australia - Miranda Otto is the reason to watch, January 23, 2008

By 

Steven I. Ramm "Steve Ramm "Anything Phon... (Phila, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dead Letter Office (DVD)

Another Quirky Film from Australia - Miranda Otto is the reason to watch

This 1998 Australian/BBC co-production hooked me from it's trailer. I wanted to know more. Actually I was curious how the postal service "Dead Letter Office" works.

I'm not sure I learned that much about the postal system (in US or Australia) - except that in 1998 they were replacing humans with computers and machines. But I did learn at least something about like under the junta in Chile in the early 1990s. "What?" you say. "Chile???". Yep. The manager of the small Australian post office emigrated from Chile and his background and history have much to do with his relationship with the new clerk played by Otto (best know for two "Lord of the Rings" films).

There are great moments in this little film but I often thought it was trying to be a tragedy, drama and comedy without staying in one place. The other cast members in the DLO look like refugees from TV's "The Office" and I could just never warm up to the Chilean manager. But whenever Otto was on the screen, things perked up.

This is a gentle "little" film with no nudity or swear words. Within the firsr five minutes there is a sex scene (with Otto on top though, as I said, no nudity). This seemed way out of place. I'm not against sex in films - far from it - but this scene did nothing to advance the plot and added for "shock value".

No award winning performances here but certainly a nice 90-minute film that will have to fight to find its audience. I enjoyed watching it.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quirky, sweet, and original, July 17, 2011

By 

Richard Stoehr "Idle Rich" (Bremerton, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dead Letter Office (DVD)

I'm sure I had this idea once - a story fragment that flickered across my brain about the letters that fall between the cracks, the ones that never reach their destination. I'm glad I didn't try to write it - 'Dead Letter Office' takes that idea and makes it into something much better than I would have done.

'Dead Letter Office' is mainly the story of Alice, played by the lovely Miranda Otto, a young woman who has been writing to her long-lost father since she was a child, with no answer. Adrift and distant, Alice takes a job at the local dead letter office of the local Australian postal service in the hopes she may find a clue about where (and who) her father is.

She does find clues there, but she also finds more than she expected. A dedicated, passionate and mysterious man runs the dead letter office, and co-workers who share that passion in some way. There's a fun scene in which they try to break their record for tracking down the intended recipient of a dead letter, using every means at their disposal and some pretty creative thinking. And then there's the file kept for the "special cases" - letters to lost loves and missing family, letters to Jesus, letters to the dead.

'Dead Letter Office' is a story about hope and dreams, about lovers and families, about love lost and found. It has a sense of humour and a sense of character with an eye for the oddball. If it seems a little too quirky sometimes, that's forgivable in the context of the overall story. Because most importantly, it has heart.

'Dead Letter Office' may be a story I wish I had written, but I'm glad I didn't. In Alice the idea is given a humanity and heart. Anything I might have written would have fallen short in comparison.