The Last Letter from Your Lover operates in two timelines. In the present a newspaper feature writer stumbles on some old love letters. In the past, we see the story of the love letters play out. We’ve seen similar stories in several movies. (Remember The Notebook?) This one uses the same turns and hooks. It feels predictable but if you liked the others, you’ll enjoy this one. Plus you get two love stories for the price of one.
In the contemporary timeline, Ella Haworth (Felicity Jones) is a feature writer for a London newspaper. She’s assigned a story about the 1960s. She finds a love letter to “J” from “B.” It grabs her interest. She learns there might be more such letters in the newspaper’s archives.
Rory (Nabhaan Rizwan) is the keeper of the gate on the archives. By the time Ella gets through the hoops Rory has for access to the archives, he’s hooked on the story behind the letter as well.
While the contemporary sleuthing into the letters is ongoing, the film shows the story as it happened in the 1960s. Jennifer Sterling (Shailene Woodley) was married to Lawrence (Joe Alwyn). It was one of those high society marriages meant to improve one’s social standing more than a marriage for love.
A reporter named Anthony O’Hare (Callum Turner) comes to interview Lawrence. Jennifer and Anthony (she calls him Boot after a character in a novel) promptly fall in love and have a hot affair.
When they are about to run off together, she’s in a car wreck and develops amnesia. Everything is a mess for the two lovers. Both are heartbroken in different ways.
Ella the intrepid reporter is still after the story and eventually finds the decades old solution to the love affair. The reporter and the archivist get entangled as well. There’s a tearjerker, heartswelling happy ending. Carry Kleenex.
I’ve been seeing Shailene Woodley everywhere lately. Here she gets act refined and wear outfits that look like Jackie Kennedy wore them first.
The film was based on a novel by Jojo Moyes and directed by Augustine Frizzell (a woman). It’s currently streaming on Netflix.