The film drew attention for being the first ever to utilize crowdfunding as a means of attaining its budget.[1][2][3] It premiered in February 1999 and played at the Chicago Alt.Film Fest that same year, receiving the Jury Award for Best Screenplay, as well as a Best Actress nomination for Lynskey.[4] It was released to home video in 2001.
Premise
When postcards meant for the previous tenant begin arriving at the apartment of lonely young receptionist Melody, she finds herself sucked into a mysterious relationship she's no business being part of. Meanwhile, in a different stretch of Los Angeles, Englishman Trevor has flown in to meet his penpal—a Bosnian refugee on the verge of being sent back to her war-ravaged homeland—but the visit takes a dramatic turn when he discovers the real reason his friend has asked him to come.
Mark Tapio Kines originally envisioned the film as a 50-minute short with one single, self-contained narrative, but decided to expand it to feature length by joining together a pair of loosely connected vignettes, titled "Dear Jenny" and "Love, Trevor", respectively.[5] Following completion of his script,[5] Kines reached out to Melanie Lynskey—who was living in New Zealand and hadn't played a lead role since Heavenly Creatures two years prior—to offer her the part of Melody, after reading online that she was eager to work in America.[1] Kines employed crowdfunding—a strategy considered to be a "breakthrough" at the time—to raise the film's budget, which grew from an initial $40,000 to a final $500,000.[1] Filming took place in Los Angeles in 1997, with principal photography wrapping on August 11.[5]
Release and reception
After playing at various festivals around the world, the film was distributed independently on video and DVD by Kines in 2001.[5] It was later made available for streaming on Netflix.[6]
In a mixed review, the Chicago Reader criticised the film's logic and lack of emotional resonance, but felt that Lynskey's work was strong, while saying of Kines, "[his] visual sense and attention to details are fairly adroit, and his graceful fades and camera movement suggest a gnawing mystery and a languorous desolation that almost compensate for the plot holes".[7] While believing it to be "semi-touching", Film Threat felt Correspondents "would have been better as two shorts", adding that the connective stories have "no solid relationship".[8] They were more enthusiastic about the performances, praising Wheaton and Nemec, and describing Lynskey as "perfect".[8]