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Red Letters has all the makings of a classic Hitchcock thriller: a hapless hero who thinks he's smarter than he is, an unpredictable femme fatale, snaky plot twists, and an all-around excellent cast. Professor Dennis Burke (Peter Coyote) wrote a sizzling erotic novel called Red Letters 20 years ago--but since then his wife has died from a protracted illness and he's been fired from a job because of an affair with a student. So he's grateful to be given a second chance at a small California college where he lectures on Hawthorne--only all his students are more interested in Burke's own writing than Hawthorne's.

Burke starts receiving letters for the former resident of his apartment that are from a woman in prison named Lydia (Nastassja Kinski) with a 30-year sentence for murder. Burke writes back and their correspondence takes a turn for the intimate when she asks him to visit her. Burke isn't sure what he's getting into, and his life is further complicated when the daughter of the college Dean (Fairuza Balk) starts making advances. Suddenly Lydia has escaped, his best friend (Jeremy Piven) is arrested for hacking into the prison computer system, and the Dean suspects Burke of trifling with his daughter.

The movie loses focus at the very end, but until then it's a smart, well-written, subtle, and unpredictable film that actually gives its characters some depth and grit. Even the more implausible moments are fun and engaging, making this well worth checking out. --Bret Fetzer

Release Date: Feb 9, 2004