Return To Sender Movie
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Storyline
TAGLINES
How can you save someone, who won't save herself?
Charlotte Cory (Connie Nielsen) is a young woman convict on Death Row who has built up a friendship with Frank Nitzche (Aidan Quinn) through mail correspondence, whilst her attorney (Kelly Preston) desperately tries to appeal the verdict before Charlotte's time runs out. With only days to spare Frank realizes that he has fallen in love with Charlotte and discovers that there is much more to the tragic circumstances of her imprisonment than he first thought - her life is now in his hands. Frank races to solve the puzzle that will reveal the truth, and tell the secrets that both he and Charlotte have been concealing, before it's too late.
| Aidan Quinn | Frank Nitzche |
| Connie Nielsen | Charlotte Cory |
| Kelly Preston | Susan Kennan |
| Timothy Daly | Martin North |
| Mark Ryan | Mark Schlesser |
| Mark Holton | Joe Charbonic |
| Sara-Marie Maltha | Stella |
| Bill Thomas | Gubby |
| Randy Colton | Joe Hammond |
| Robin Brooks Sullivan | Mary Hammond |
| Madison Mueller | Kirstie |
| Eric Starkey | Hammond's brother |
| Montana Sullivan | Hammond's son |
| Brian Shoop | District Attorney |
| Michael Phillip Simpson | Johnny Decker |
| Bille August |
6.30 out of 10 (734 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Well Crafted Film
posted on 18 Oct 2008A powerful performance by Connie Nielsen, well supported by Aidan Quinn and Kelly Preston. The plot holes don't really matter here, it's the psyche of Charlotte Cory, as revealed by Nielson, that draws one through this film. Like Quinn's character Frank, one needs to learn why this beautiful person will passively accept execution by the state rather than defend her innocence. Self-condemned, because she miserably failed her sister Stella years before, Charlotte seems to believe she can atone for her sins in a twisted kind of sacrifice.Neilsen reveals with her face and eyes the inner beauty of her character, the sadness on learning the (false?) circumstances of her father's death, the meaningfulness of her relationship with Frank, the love of her sister, the hope of a new life.Aidan Quinn provides a solid, believable Frank, the shyster turning hero, resonating with Nielsen throughout.The overwhelming impression of this film is its realism, in character portrayal, settings, musical score, it seems authentic, even when viewed through the lens of a security camera. In contrast, the fantasy sequences are whimsical and far out.The solution of the mystery is satisfying, leading to a good ending.
Another Hollywood message movie but done well
posted on 08 Oct 2008First of all, I liked this movie. Connie Nielsen, Adain Quinn and Kelly Preston are all terrific actors (especially Nielsen, who's been a favorite of mine since Gladiator) and all do supreme justice to their roles. That said, I didn't know much about this movie (nothing actually) when I rented it and was very disappointed to find that it was just another message movie which told us, the ignorant, just how evil capital punishment really is. The crowds at the prison just before the execution were all stupid redneck types shouting obscene comments. Nowhere did you see a Mike Ferrell type and his equally moronic crazies. Also, many of the comments made by the actors were about as subtle as a sledgehammer. I wish Hollywood would go back to making movies that tell a story and quit trying to sell their left-wing agendas.
SPOILER - Nice Movie - but spoiled by holes and clichés
posted on 16 Jan 2008As the "hero" was being chased by a blind gunman, I told my wife that if the good ol' fat cop comes along at the last minute and saves him, I'd be on this site to rubbish it.Sure enough as the gun was pointed at the guys head, "bang" fat cop kills the blind guy from behind. Why do directors still use these hackneyed worn out clichés? There are loads of other stupid things like our hero picking the right key from a large bunch in the dark at the first attempt to open a door; like a level crossing with off stage sound of a train but no flashing lights.Having said all that, as an earlier writer has written, it is a nice movie to watch if you have nothing else to do - but I'd really think first if this wouldn't be an opportunity to do those chores you've been putting off.
Fantastic Movie
posted on 29 Dec 2007I'm just writing to alert and remind everybody what really can be done with a "low budget" and independent movie like I think this one is.I love this movie, it's story, the characters, the performances of the actors. It's all great.It has a fantastic ending and I recommend everyone to see this movie.I really think that this type of picture should have more support for being done. It's the "simple" stories like this one that demonstrate the true beauty of the cinema and not the blockbusters that the main industry continues to support.I'm not saying that those shouldn't be done, because their fun.I just think that sometimes and more often, they should support the so called low budget movies so that great, fantastic, human, and simple stories like what this movie represents could come out and be seen by all the people.The fact is that with the low advertisement that is made to this type of movies, at least in my country (I presume that in the States it shouldn't be much more), only the true cinema "buffs" get the chance to find out about them and see them, and not the common person, as it should be from the start.If you really love cinema, don't forget to see this movie, because it's one of those few movies that ends and makes you keep remind about them, the plot, the simultaneous complexity and simplicity of the characters, and everything else for a long time.
A woman waits for her execution and one man tries to prevent the inevitable
posted on 17 Nov 2007For me "Return to Sender" is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's extremely thrilling and I'm so happy about the ending, because I never knew how it will end. The two main actors Aidan Quinn and Connie Nielsen are playing excellent and I can say nothing bad about this film. Also the storyline is really good, because it could really happen. It's a pity that this movie hasn't as much appreciation as a Hollywood movie, but perhaps that's why it is so well-done.So i'm recommend it to everyone who is interested in such movies. Another good film is "Last Dance", which is about the same topic.
Powerful acting, powerful emotion
posted on 15 Nov 2007Charlotte Cory (Connie Nielsen) is on death row for the kidnapping and murder of a child - but did she do it? Aidan Quinn plays an ex-defense lawyer who makes money selling the last letters of condemned prisoners to the highest bidder (apparently, such letters fetch tens of thousands of dollars). Because Cory's case is so rare, he sees the chance to make half a million dollars on her last letter. He pretends to be a friend of her father's in order to get close to her, but he ends up becoming emotionally engaged in her situation, and falling in love with her.Return To Sender is a low-key character drama, extremely well-acted, realistic, touching and just generally well-rounded. I was absorbed by it throughout, and can't think of a single thing wrong with it. It keeps the suspense going right until the satisfying end. A great achievement by everyone involved.
comment on "return to sender",the sunset-rise of humanity
posted on 26 Oct 2007it's a movie that brings out the human nature of the man,which is trying hardly to rile on real fact for the immersion of the truth in order to triumph over the possible bad part coexisting in everyone of us ,part which it's revealed into the very start of the movie.during the whole duration of the movie,the watcher comes to serious and powerful feelings regarding the human condition among the others which just look like some little pure things in comparison with the inmate Charlotte and the man who does almost everything to apply for her's "inguiltyness" in which he doesn't believe in 100% . the final is on the same scale with the movie,being an answer to the whole movie,revealing the house of the sister's laying calmly in the lazy landscape of the sunset,revealing the house which was "put into fire" by those who believed that she was guilty.the final scene reveals the humanity of the whole movie and it gives the movie a possible continuation ,beeing placed in the zone of a flaming relationship between the main two characters of these miniatured masterpiece.
A Deep Sleeper
posted on 02 Jun 2007Listed on IMDb under the primary title of Return to Sender (2004) by pretty much unknown to me Danish director, Bille August (except for The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones), is about a woman on death row who is going to let herself be executed in order to protect some one else. Excellent performances by Danish stunner, Connie Nielson (the reason I rented the movie) who never looked better than here in understated prison makeup, and Aidan Quinn (as a letters from death row inmates bounty hunter) in a tight script that starts off like it's going to be an evils of capital punishment vehicle, but turns into something else, which I can only call the value of truth without giving too much away.It was only released in the US on DVD last November, but set here and filmed here and in Denmark. There aren't any external reviews in English, and only one review on IMDb that panned it. I'd have gone to see this in the theater. 7+/10.
Nothing interesting either way
posted on 26 Feb 2007This was a movie that OK. The acting was OK, the story was OK,
everything was OK, but not more than that. I wasn't p***** off about
the time I spent watching it, but there were a lot of other ways
(better ways) I could've spent that time. Bottom line, it's a good
movie to see if you've got NOTHING else to do. The other thing to
mention about the movie is that it had been done before. Not the exact
same movie. But you can't help saying to yourself "haven't i seen this
one before". It's just one of those movies that has that feeling about
them. That being said, I'll go home and watch cartoons. Yeah, cartoons
kick a55.
Nielsen success that screams for a better finale
posted on 20 Nov 2006I agree with most of what's been said about this film, both negative and positive. Yes, there are holes, unexplained and unsupported events and motivations and frankly, the ending sucks! I mean really, after being on death row, hours from execution, and when she's finally released nobody is there to greet her and she has to take the bus to her dilapidated house where again, nobody's there. I know the news media has a short attention span but you'd think after all the hoopla some reporter would want her story. At least her lawyer would have been there or the man who proved her innocence and who eventually does meet her at her house.But enough of that. This film is worth seeing for one reason only: Connie Nielsen. I've seen her in three others, Mission to Mars, Gladiator, and One Hour Photo, and although she's good in these, here she's captivating. Essentially she carries the whole film and certainly deserves to be the headliner. The performances of Aidan Quinn and Kelly Preston were predictable but hers was captivating. That's what makes this movie worth watching and that's good because after all it centers on her character. If it hadn't been for the plot issues I would have given it a higher rating.And I should add that it left me with a sense of satisfaction, as if I had watched something worthwhile, something that will stay with me, something that made me think. Nielsen deserves much of the credit for that.
Easily top 10 favourite thriller
posted on 05 Sep 2006First of all this movie is excellent. Actors are brilliant (Connie Nielsen on top), plot is excellent and it even has Hollywood styled happy ending (many of you probably dislike it). Why I liked this movie so much that it's in my all time top 10 thrillers list? Because it's simple and easy to understand. This movie has no fancy special effects, no superbeautiful or superugly characters, no extreme plot turnovers nothing like that (like Harlin's Mindhunters for example). It's about ordinary people doing ordinary bad or good things to each other and it's brilliant. Like taken from real life. And once again it's brilliant. It is a really must see movie for all of you thriller fans. ENJOY!!!
Tense, well-directed
posted on 17 Aug 2005Even though the ending was kind of deus ex machina, since anybody could have been brought forward to clear Connie Nielsen, it wasn't obvious, and there was enough tension to think that she might in fact be killed at the end. Connie did a very good job as a hardened person, and a person who had spent a great number of nights on drugs and alcohol. Aidan Quinn was good as the originally uncaring journalist who came to fall in love with her. Kelly Preston did a professional acting job, but she doesn't have any emotional depth to her. The lighting was good. The scenes were properly paced. The interaction between Connie/Aidan gave the story its emotional weight. The stupid cop wasn't necessary, and didn't provide any real relief of tension.
Excellent little movie
posted on 14 Dec 2004Aidan Quinn leads a stellar cast in CONVICTED, the gripping tale of a lawyer/writer who uncovers new information regarding a woman convicted of kidnaping and killing an infant. Connie Nielson plays the convicted woman due to be executed within days, and Kelly Preston is her new attorney. Quinn becomes convinced the woman did not kill the child, and in fact no body was ever found and there is very little evidence to tie the woman to the kidnaping itself. It's a race to the finish as the clock ticks down on her execution date. The plot is nothing new, but CONVICTED plays out like a first-rate murder mystery, with lots of twists and turns -- and a truly unexpected and unforeseen ending. Tim Daly of WINGS plays a pivotal role as the convicted woman's brother-in-law, and he and Quinn, Nielson and Preston are all at the top of their game. Nielson is particularly convincing as the deeply troubled and fatalistic convict. CONVICTED plays out like a good novel, the highest compliment I can give any movie.
Blind Alley
posted on 24 Nov 2004**SPOILERS** Underground tabloid reporter Frank Nitzche, Aidan Quinn, has been working on the Kirstie Hammond murder/kidnap case for over a year corresponding with the person convicted of that heinous crime death row inmate Charlotte Cory, Connie Nielsen.With her execution scheduled in ten days Frank is requested to be the last person besides her lawyer Susan Kennan, Kelly Preston, to be granted an interview by Charlotte. Very impressed with his letters Charlotte feels that Frank will understand what happened that evening some eight years ago. It was then on Thanksgiving Eve when one year-old Kirstie Hammond was kidnapped and eventually murdered.As Frank hears Charlotte out he becomes very disturbed in what he's doing in trying to trick her into spilling her heart out just to get the exclusive story in the biggest kidnap case since the Baby Lindbergh kidnapping back in 1932. The case of Hall of Fame L.A Dodger baseball player Joe Hammond, Randy Calton, infant daughter's kidnapping and murder.Frank, in talking with her, soon realizes that Charlotte is holding something back that may exonerate her of the crime and that has to do with her sister Stella, Sara-Marie Maltha. Stella who had completely disappeared from sight since Charlotte's arrest may be the key to why Charlotte's so meek, even eager, to meet her fate in the Oklahoma's McAllister State Prison's execution chamber! Is Charlotte somehow covering up Stella's involvement in the crime? Slow in getting to the meat of the story the movie "Convicted" has sensation reporter and former defense attorney Frank Nitzche stick his neck out, and almost getting it broken, in not getting the big story by getting Charlotte to confess her crime to him but uncovering the real reasons behind it. Reasons that Charlotte had kept hidden from the police and the Hammond Family that are so shocking that if brought out would not only exonerate her but reveal just where the kidnapped and missing Kirstie final resting place really is!The film goes into a race against time scenario with Frank now not caring about the big story, worth as much as $800,000.00 to his publishers, but trying to find Charlotte's missing sister Stella. Stella who's been blind since surviving a car accident that she holds Charlotte responsible for is eventually tracked down by Frank at the Oklahoma School for the Blind where shes'a a teacher using the name Julie Smith.***SPOILER ALERT**** It's in his talking to Stella and later seeing a number of home video tapes, that Charlotte left to him, that Frank slowly puts all the pieces together in what really happened to Kirstie Hammond. The pressing problem that Frank is now facing in saving Charlott's life is two fold. Will he be able to get Stella to reveal the truth behind Kirstie's kidnapping! And even more disturbing can Frank get Charlotte to stop trying to be a martyr in taking the truth with her about Stella's, and what turned out to be her boyfriend, involvement in the crime to her grave!
Almost Imperfect
posted on 10 Jan 2009Return to Sender, a.k.a. Convicted, is almost imperfect. The one good thing about this particular film was that I was never bored. That being said, the reviews that hail this movie as a low-budget success may not have watched the same movie that I saw.Rather than write a review and tell you what happens and what works and doesn't work, I will simply comment that nothing works. There are plot holes in this movie that you can drive a semi through. The acting in the film is not very good, although that may be a result of a script so poorly worded that it could have been ghost written by George Lucas. There was no need for exceptional sets or costumes for this particular movie and everything seemed appropriate. Did I mention that there were some plot holes? By the end of the movie, you are wondering how a blind guy can be such a good shot with a shotgun, why Kelly Preston trusts Aidan Quinn, why she would fall asleep the night before her client is supposed to be killed, how Aidan Quinn can drive 400 miles in such a short time with a car that keeps breaking down during the rest of the movie, why Aidan Quinn didn't by a fifth instead of a bunch of nips, etc.With all that being said, this is certainly a B-movie, and a terrible one at that. The unfortunate thing is that it just isn't bad enough to be good. If you value your time, please let this serve as a public service message to stay away from this one.