Concerning the letter; before the end where the sheriff was in the home, you can see a few lines of text if you press pause. I believe the reason they didn’t want to show the letter is to prevent the audience from emulating it, as that does occur from time to time.

The sheriff seems to have been included for tension just as you suggested, especially since she is a law enforcement official. It seemed to be in place to create a feeling of “oh my goodness the law is going to catch up to them!”.

Good thing you brought up the music video! I think the purpose of the text is to have a greater impact during intense scenes but it ends up being condescending to the audience.

I must say I do enjoy our exchanges JM! Always good exercise for the mind
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Just a few more words, as I watched the movie again last night…
And unfortunately noticed even more annoying details. Maybe I was blinded by the great acting and cinematography the first time, but most of the movie feels heavy handed now, like the anything but subtle use of the music (the lyrics “I’m a coward” blaring during Jeremy Piven’s car and airport scene being a perfect example).
What I enjoyed in Pellington’s previous movies is how he managed to leave his music video baggage aside, and stay very smart and subtle about real story telling, but it looks like he suddenly tossed all that away and indulged in everything a music video director shouldn’t do when switching to movies.
There are still some great scenes in there, and some of the experimental sides of it are really interesting, but the movie as a whole just doesn’t work for me. Like a bad 80′s tune with a great bassline, I can’t hate it and will always be drawn to it somehow, while objectively I know it’s not good…
And it really annoys me. I don’t mind a bad movie by a bad director with bad actors, but there are many talents involved in this… So again, it’s certainly not the “worst movie of the year” like I’ve read here and there, but still, what a waste…
On a side note, I’m surprised by how your review completely ignores how dark and desperate the movie is. At times, your comments about friendship made me feel like reading a review of Stand By Me or The Sandlot…!

Positive reviews of this movie are hard to find, and I’m glad I found one here. I don’t know why this movie got trashed this way. I don’t find it without flaws, and major ones too, but it’s still way better than what has been told everywhere. Anyway…

I love Mark Pellington. I think he’s the most underrated contemporary director out there. All his movies, despite being very different from each other, share the same qualities : Beautifully and intelligently directed, wonderfully acted, and always with an unpredictable script : You never know exactly where you’re heading until you’re there, and I personally love it.

Having said that, and although I enjoyed I Melt With You and kept thinking of it weeks after watching it, I think it’s the most flawed of all his movies… which really annoyed me as these few flaws prevented the movie from reaching what I would have considered as a timeless gem. And I believe almost all theses flaws are in the script.

I’ll address them without spoiling anything :

The main flaw is that goddam letter. It was ridiculous, and most annoying of all : It was useless. Everything was already there for the story and the characters to evolve and end exactly the same way without it. Which would have been even more powerful too. I believe that removing the letter from the script would have resulted in a simpler and more powerful story.

Second flaw : The Carla Gugino character was also useless. What did she bring ? Some kind of tension as to whether or not the truth would be discovered from outside ? A lame and useless car chase ? An outside character was interesting indeed, but it could have been a neighbour, or even the owner of the house, instead of a local sheriff.

Third flaw, and this time in the way it was directed : Rob Lowe’s last scene felt way too heavy handed, and lacking the subtlety of what Pellington usually does.

Finally, although the onscreen text during the (great) opening sequence is pretty effective, I wonder if it’s not a weakness to rely on text this way. I wonder if all the information given by this text couldn’t have been given another way, not to mention that Pellington has been using this exact same trick before in the MothMan Prophecies music video he also directed :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY-LaFHAfQc

Despite what I consider as “flaws”, I Melt With You is still a bold and powerful movie, with wonderful actors and great cinematography.

I still love Mark Pellington and can’t wait for his next movie.