Dear God (1996)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	107:47
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (58:47)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Garry Marshall
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Greg Kinnear Laurie Metcalf Maria Pitillo Tim Conway Hector Elizondo Jon Seda Roscoe Lee Browne Anna Maria Horsford Kathleen Marshall Isadora O'Boto Felix Pire Donal Logue Sam McMurray
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	James Patrick Dunne Jeremy Lubbock

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Arabic Bulgarian Czech Danish German Greek English Spanish French Hebrew Croatian Icelandic Italian Hungarian Dutch Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Slovenian Serbian Finnish Swedish Turkish English for the Hearing Impaired German Titling Spanish Titling French Titling Italian Titling	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Tom Turner (Greg Kinnear) is a two bit hustler who uses his sharp wit to con loose change from unsuspecting victims. He is also a bit of a gambler - and a rather bad one at that, resulting in him being hassled by a loan shark, Webster (Donal Logue), for ever-increasing shares of his ill-gotten gains. When he gets busted at a Thanksgiving parade, he attempts to defend himself at his hearing. The judge (Larry Miller) sees the creative spark in Turner and decides to delay a jail sentence if Turner can use his enterprise in keeping and holding down a job for a year. With the help of a cousin, he finds work in the dead letter office of the mail service where he meets an odd assortment of characters - all, apparently, as irredeemable as the ill-addressed mail they tend. Amongst others, there's Rebecca (Roseanne's Laurie Metcalf), - the burnt out lawyer; Dooly (Tim Conway), the shell-shocked vet who bit a dog when he was a mailman; Handsome (Jon Seda), the Puerto Rican of questionable immigration status; Lucille (Anna Maria Horsford), the world-weary cynic; and Vladek (Hector Elizondo), the enigmatic Russian supervisor.

      Turner's job is to sort the undeliverable letters into specific categories (although why one should have to is not clearly explained). There are bags for God letters, Easter Bunny letters, Santa letters, and even for letters to Elvis. When Tom's need for fast cash gets the better of him, he tries to steal some unclaimed jewellery, but to avoid getting caught, he accidentally sends the parcel of baubles to the sender of one of the "Dear God" letters - a desperate mother begging for additional security in her slum apartment block. While he tries to retrieve the parcel, he's caught by his co-workers, who misconstrue his motives and believe that his intentions were entirely altruistic.

      Inspired by what they see as an act in the spirit of the Christmas season, they form a committee to become miracle workers, in spite of the mail system's policy that opening mail is a criminal offence. Tom finds himself the unwitting and unwilling co-conspirator in their crimes of compassion, all the while becoming increasingly concerned at exposure when the media begins to pick up on these "miracles" occurring.

      What ensues is a "David and Goliath" court hearing. Can Tom Turner keep out of jail and win the affections of the girl of his dreams, Gloria (Maria Pitillo)? Do I need to answer that question? This is standard Garry Marshall fare. He has directed many successful feel good movies in the past (most recently, The Princess Diaries), and he is well aware of the Hollywood formula here: take one likeable rogue, add unattainable girl, combine with oddball characters, stir into situation with unsurmountable odds and allow "lurv" and redemption to smooth the way.

      In that context, you'll get the gist of this film within the first seven minutes or so of viewing. He has added quite a distinguished cast - Kinnear, Larry Miller, Tim Conway, Rue McClanahan, Hector Elizondo - but, largely their talents are grossly underutilised. Metcalf's performance as Rebecca is an excruciating example of trying too hard, and the plot meanders around saccharin territory till your teeth hurt.

      Formulaic, trite and ultimately boring - there are a few moments of snappy dialogue - but it never really lifts off the ground.

Video

     The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.75:1 16x9 enhanced.

     There is little contrast evident, resulting in a rather flat and dull presentation. The highlights are virtually non-existent and there is low level noise present. The transfer has a cast over it that impairs any sharpness or crispness.

     The colours are equally muted and drab with very little sparkle present at all.

     There appear to be some compression issues evident here, resulting in a mono-dimensional feeling to the film. There are also some instances of telecine wobble. There is no significant aliasing, but there is some motion blur. Dust specks and scratches are not particularly evident.

     This is an RSDL disc, with the layer change at 58:47. The transition is relatively seamless.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

     The soundtrack is delivered in English Dolby Digital 5.1, German Dolby Digital 2.0, French Dolby Digital 2.0, Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0.

      The dialogue is clear enough and there are no significant audio sync problems. Subtitles were clean and accurate.

     The music is pedestrian in general, although the use of Joan Osborne's song, What if God Was One of Us? was quite a nice touch.

      There is virtually no use of the surround sound available, and there are occasional pops and distortions which are somewhat distracting.

      Subwoofer activity is very rarely present, although not really necessary in a film of this kind anyway.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     The menu is static and silent.

      Both the R1 and the R4 appear to be bare boned versions. Go for the PAL version.

     Formulaic and by no means challenging to the viewer, if you're looking for a mild and undemanding comedy, this may be your fare. To my mind, it was rather a shame to see such a waste of good talent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall