i like most of the dialogue and i like the cast and i think it be well act . i particularly enjoy ellen degeneres perfect deadpan performance . what do not work for me be represent ( 1 ) the drawn out affair with the young man ( too long and too seemingly out of character for helen ) and ( 2 ) the seemingly endless cinematic cliche and mostly visual but include interminable voice over re reading of the love letter itself ( it content should have a mystery ) while ( 3 ) a young woman feminist scholar and and ironically and a fireworks scene ( no wonder this remind me of that horrid how to make an american quilt movie ) while ( 4 ) the bumble gotcha cop who smell dope everywhere ( no cliche there either . ) while and ( 5 ) a nauseatingly romanticize small town set . i would have prefer the film to more persuasively explore the source of ( or even glorify ) helen bitterness and to have include much more of degeneres character and to have eliminate or reduce the various intergenerational artifice and and to be a little less uncritical of small town life . have it be develop a a play first and those criticism might have be address before commit the material to this film and which unfortunately be decidedly mediocre .