`LOVE LETTER' A WHIMSICALLY HUMAN ALTERNATIVE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Daily News Film Critic

Say what you will about ``The Love Letter,'' it rates high in the whimsy department. This little romance is set in a picturesque New England town with the tongue-twisting name of Loblolly by the Sea, a place where firemen shoo deer from front parlors and eccentric locals (including a mysterious woman named Miss Scattergoods) gather in a quaint bookstore to pass the time of day.

In other words, it's a little too good to be true.

``The Love Letter'' primarily deals with the power of suggestion, showing how a few choice words (contained in the missive of the film's title) can unleash long-dormant desires and passions.

The film's charms are modest and often a bit elusive. While the movie features four generations of women, it is dominated by one character at the expense of the others. This results in some head-scratching for the audience, particularly toward the end when a surprise revelation proves to be a little confusing because we barely know the parties involved.

Kate Capshaw stars as Helen, a guarded, divorced mother (we see her daughter for all of five seconds before she's packed off to summer camp) who runs a charming seaside bookstore. Friends describe Helen as ``emotionally celibate'' and ``weird,'' and she does seem a little forbidding as she jogs around town morning after morning, alone with her thoughts and regrets.

One day in her bookstore, Helen discovers a passionate love letter with the day's mail, and it awakens some feelings inside her. (This, despite the letter's rather stilted prose.)

Helen isn't the only one to see the letter, either. Her friend and co-worker, Janet (Ellen DeGeneres) reads it and thinks it was meant for her. Johnny (Tom Everett Scott), a college student working at the bookstore during his summer break, spies it while having dinner with Helen and infers that she's the author. Funny, Helen believes Johnny wrote it.

The most likely suspect, though, is the town's moony fireman, George (Tom Selleck), a man who has been infatuated with Helen since their high school days together. Recently divorced, George recently has taken to circling Helen, but he doesn't have courage to move their relationship past the platonic stage. At least, not in person.

Intrigued? Probably not. But ``The Love Letter'' isn't without its pleasures. Capshaw, remembered mostly for screaming her way through ``Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,'' proves she can do some decent character work, and DeGeneres reminds the audience that she's still a nice comic presence with the right material.

Blythe Danner and Gloria Stuart also show up, quite briefly, as Helen's mother and grandmother, respectively. Their appearances are a little jarring; it's as if they've arrived from some other movie. With its brief, 88-minute running time, the movie could have used another few minutes to flesh out some of its supporting characters.

``The Love Letter'' is being positioned as the human alternative to ``Star Wars'' and, certainly, the film will appeal to audiences who prefer Puccini to Wookies in their fantasy worlds. It's not a movie that's going to rock anyone's world, but this quiet film is at least a reminder that words can be a pretty powerful force, too.

THE FACTS

The film: ``The Love Letter'' (PG-13; brief nudity, strong language).

The stars: Kate Capshaw, Tom Selleck, Tom Everett Scott, Ellen DeGeneres.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Peter Ho-sun Chan. Screenplay by Maria Maggenti, based on the novel by Cathleen Schine. Released by DreamWorks Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 28 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two and one half stars.

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Photo

Photo: In ``The Love Letter,'' moony fireman George (Tom Selleck) shares a light moment with the friend and co-worker (Ellen DeGeneres) of the object of his infatuation.