I agree with most of what's been said about this film, both negative and positive. Yes, there are holes, unexplained and unsupported events and motivations and frankly, the ending sucks! I mean really, after being on death row, hours from execution, and when she's finally released nobody is there to greet her and she has to take the bus to her dilapidated house where again, nobody's there. I know the news media has a short attention span but you'd think after all the hoopla some reporter would want her story. At least her lawyer would have been there or the man who proved her innocence and who eventually does meet her at her house.But enough of that. This film is worth seeing for one reason only: Connie Nielsen. I've seen her in three others, Mission to Mars, Gladiator, and One Hour Photo, and although she's good in these, here she's captivating. Essentially she carries the whole film and certainly deserves to be the headliner. The performances of Aidan Quinn and Kelly Preston were predictable but hers was captivating. That's what makes this movie worth watching and that's good because after all it centers on her character. If it hadn't been for the plot issues I would have given it a higher rating.And I should add that it left me with a sense of satisfaction, as if I had watched something worthwhile, something that will stay with me, something that made me think. Nielsen deserves much of the credit for that.

Even though the ending was kind of deus ex machina, since anybody could have been brought forward to clear Connie Nielsen, it wasn't obvious, and there was enough tension to think that she might in fact be killed at the end. Connie did a very good job as a hardened person, and a person who had spent a great number of nights on drugs and alcohol. Aidan Quinn was good as the originally uncaring journalist who came to fall in love with her. Kelly Preston did a professional acting job, but she doesn't have any emotional depth to her. The lighting was good. The scenes were properly paced. The interaction between Connie/Aidan gave the story its emotional weight. The stupid cop wasn't necessary, and didn't provide any real relief of tension.

I'm just writing to alert and remind everybody what really can be done with a "low budget" and independent movie like I think this one is.I love this movie, it's story, the characters, the performances of the actors. It's all great.It has a fantastic ending and I recommend everyone to see this movie.I really think that this type of picture should have more support for being done. It's the "simple" stories like this one that demonstrate the true beauty of the cinema and not the blockbusters that the main industry continues to support.I'm not saying that those shouldn't be done, because their fun.I just think that sometimes and more often, they should support the so called low budget movies so that great, fantastic, human, and simple stories like what this movie represents could come out and be seen by all the people.The fact is that with the low advertisement that is made to this type of movies, at least in my country (I presume that in the States it shouldn't be much more), only the true cinema "buffs" get the chance to find out about them and see them, and not the common person, as it should be from the start.If you really love cinema, don't forget to see this movie, because it's one of those few movies that ends and makes you keep remind about them, the plot, the simultaneous complexity and simplicity of the characters, and everything else for a long time.

Charlotte Cory (Connie Nielsen) is on death row for the kidnapping and murder of a child - but did she do it? Aidan Quinn plays an ex-defense lawyer who makes money selling the last letters of condemned prisoners to the highest bidder (apparently, such letters fetch tens of thousands of dollars). Because Cory's case is so rare, he sees the chance to make half a million dollars on her last letter. He pretends to be a friend of her father's in order to get close to her, but he ends up becoming emotionally engaged in her situation, and falling in love with her.Return To Sender is a low-key character drama, extremely well-acted, realistic, touching and just generally well-rounded. I was absorbed by it throughout, and can't think of a single thing wrong with it. It keeps the suspense going right until the satisfying end. A great achievement by everyone involved.