Dear God (1996)

When letters written to God start getting results, and replies, people everywhere are amazed. The Post Office however is annoyed.

Director:

Garry Marshall

Writers:

Warren Leight, Ed Kaplan

Stars:

Greg Kinnear, Laurie Metcalf, Maria Pitillo

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Greg Kinnear	...	Tom Turner
Laurie Metcalf	...	Rebecca Frazen
Maria Pitillo	...	Gloria McKinney
Tim Conway	...	Herman Dooly
Hector Elizondo	...	Vladek Vidov
Jon Seda	...	Handsome
Roscoe Lee Browne	...	Idris Abraham
Anna Maria Horsford	...	Lucille Barnett
Kathleen Marshall	...	Whispering Wendy
Isadora O'Boto	...	Hot Mary
Felix Pire	...	Ramon (as Felix A. Pire)
Donal Logue	...	Webster
Sam McMurray	...	Federal Prosecutor
Nancy Marchand	...	Judge Kits Van Heynigan
Larry Miller	...	State Judge

Storyline

Tom Turner is a con man, defrauding people from their money with a variety of two-bit hustles. One night he makes the mistake of attempting to hustle some undercover cops, and finds himself in court faced with the dilemma of either going to jail or getting a real job. Choosing to stay out of jail, he gets a job at the post office working in their Dead Letter Office helping to sort Dead Letters (i.e. mail which, for whatever reason, can't be delivered). Some of the mail he recieves can't be delivered because it's addressed to God, and he accidentally answers (sending them money in the process). This starts the ball rolling as more of his co-workers get in on the idea of helping people by answering "God" mail.

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Plot Keywords:

letter | money | post office | court | con man | 

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Taglines:

Many people write to God. Somebody is answering.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for language and mild thematic elements

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 November 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cher bon Dieu

Filming Locations:

Santa Monica Beach, Santa Monica, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$3,213,045 (USA) (1 November 1996)

Gross:

$7,061,018 (USA) (10 January 1997)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rysher Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Final feature movie of Nancy Marchand.

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Goofs

The envelope that Tom puts the $5,000 dollars in moves around. He first puts it into his pocket, then you see it in his breast pocket, then it disappears.

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Quotes

Bodacious TV Anchor: ...this may be the first time that a serial killer has used poison cereal to kill his victims...

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Connections

References The Fugitive (1963)

User Reviews

Delightful, warm-hearted, and inspiring

The name of Frank Capra was tossed about by some of your reviewers and rightly so. But the one film which I think this one puposely mimics and updates as a sequel but which was never mentioned by your commentators was the equally zany and warm-hearted classic, Miracle on Thirty Fourth Street (late 1940s) with Edmund Gwenn as "Santa Claus." Most likely by deliberate choice the writers of Dear God chose the post office, dead letters, and a climactic final trial scene as pillars of their plot just as in the earlier movie. In 34th Street Santa's defense lawyer calls upon those dead letter postal workers to dump 100s of letters addressed to Santa Claus in front of the presiding judge to prove that by delivering these letters to this particular court room an arm of the US government definitely believes the Gwenn Santa character to be the real Claus, thereby proving him sane and undelusional. "Santa" too, like the gnome-like postal workers in Dear God, had been filling the screen with good deeds and sage advice for the length of the film. And as in Dear God, the audience (at least I was) was most delighted to see Santa and the postal workers triumph over the stuffy laws and regulations which would stand in the way of their making people's lives so much happier by their good deeds. I stand with those of your reviewers who hugged this delightful movie to their respective breasts and defended it against a cynical and humorless flock of detractors. It goes into my all-time favorites list.