A judge gives con-man Tom Turner a choice—a jail sentence, or a year of honest work. But when he gets a job in the U.S. Post Office's dead letter office, he starts a Good Samaritan con by answering letters written to God. His seemingly virtuous work inspires his co-workers to do the same, but their good deeds are frowned upon by the postmaster general—and the cops.
Acting
Laurie Metcalf's deadpan postal worker steals every scene.
Production
Garry Marshall's warm LA backlot fantasy of bureaucracy.
Director
Garry Marshall
Greg Kinnear
Tom Turner
Laurie Metcalf
Rebecca Frazen
Maria Pitillo
Gloria McKinney
Tim Conway
Herman Dooly
Héctor Elizondo
Vladek Vidov
Jon Seda
Handsome
Roscoe Lee Browne
Idris Abraham
Anna Maria Horsford
Lucille Barnett
Felix Pire
Ramon
Donal Logue
Webster
Sam McMurray
Federal Prosecutor
Nancy Marchand
Judge Kits Van Heynigan
Larry Miller
State Judge
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real USPS Dead Letter Office in Atlanta processes 90 million items yearly; this film's premise briefly inspired actual employee kindness campaigns in 1997.
Released during peak '90s spiritual-lite cinema (Touched by an Angel era), it tanked against The First Wives Club—proving audiences preferred revenge to redemption that October.
US
