A somewhat uneasy blend of "women's melodrama" and softcore feature, Love Letters is rescued from mediocrity solely by the efforts of a very effective cast. The basic plot (woman finds letter of her late mother's detailing an affair, and decides to follow in her footsteps) is "TV Movie Of The Week" fare, livened up here by several semi-explicit love scenes with the always-nice-to look-at Curtis. Her beautiful body is on display here. Those who would watch his film for such scenes only, however, will probably come away disappointed.

Curtis plays a D.J. at a small alternative FM station. Upon clearing away belongings of her recently deceased mother, she finds evidence of a decades-long, mostly platonic affair with another man. Using the man's beautifully written letters as a sort of ideal, she sets out to start her own affair, eventually meeting and falling love with a married teacher (James Keach). As their relationship follows its inevitable, inexorable decay, her love becomes more obsessive, leading to a somewhat strained confrontation scene with Keach's wife. The film's resolution, while also cliched, is well-handled.

As stated earlier, the love scenes leave little to the imagination and go a good deal further than most "mainstream" movies detail. the cast is uniformly fine, particularly supporting players Amy Madigan as Curtis' neighbor/confidant and Bud Cort, doing a Paul Schaffer imitation as another D.J. It does seem ironic, though, that writer/director Jones, who also tries to give "a woman's view" to the horror genre with Slumber Party Massacre, misses the mark in this film as well, despite good intentions.