Movie Review: Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Lost Without You

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Story and characters work perfectly to pull you in

Cons: All cons got lost

The Bottom Line:

Tracking a package

Film shows what franchise does best

Will delight the fans

“Do You Have a Bucket List?”  “No.  But I Do Have a List of Buckets.”

When I watched the sixth Signed, Sealed, Delivered movie, I was disappointed in it.  But, since it was the first time the franchise hadn’t hit the mark for me, I hoped it was a temporary blip.  Having now watched the next movie, Lost Without You, I’m thrilled to say my faith was rewarded.

As always, the movie follows the four members of the POstables, the team who works to send mail that may have been damaged on its way to where it should have gone.  And their newest case is intriguing.  Someone dropped a package and letter in a prop mailbox.  It’s been very mangled and has all kind of stains on it.  They have an idea of what part of town it was mailed from and where it might be going.  Will that be enough to figure things out?  Even more puzzling, the package appears to be a bucket list.

Meanwhile, Oliver and Shane (Eric Mabius and Kristin Booth) are working up to take two on their first date.  That is if Oliver doesn’t go camping with his father, Joe (Gregory Harrison).  And Norman (Geoff Gustafson) is trying to act a little more boldly after getting a job offer in DC.  What might that mean for his relationship with Rita (Crystal Lowe)?

Just about everything that wasn’t working for me in the last movie worked here.  The mystery of the package was interesting with a couple of good complications and surprises along the way to the solution.  While Norman and Rita’s subplot might have been a little safe and ordinary, Oliver and Shane’s was anything but.  The way everything came together at the end was wonderful.

Now, I’m not saying that we didn’t have predictable moments along the way.  But I didn’t care.  I was so caught up in the story that I wanted to see them happen.  We got some beautiful nature shots as well.

In the end, this movie had some very interesting character growth for Oliver.  To a lesser extent, it did for Norman as well.  I’m curious to see where they go with that in the next movie because I’m sure they will go somewhere with it.  They are way too careful with their continuity to miss it.

And, once again, the acting is top notch.  The four leads of the franchise make their characters, who could have been caricatures and less than interesting, into people we love and love to root for.  I can’t emphasize enough just how much I keep coming back to see what is going to happen next to them.  The rest of the cast is just as good.  I found it fun to see Jesse Moss here.  He’s popped up in quite a few of the Hallmark Mystery movies I’ve watched over the years.

One thing I wasn’t expecting was how much this movie talked about faith.  Yes, that’s always been part of the series, especially coming from Oliver.  But this movie really talks about it.  The theme really does fit the story perfectly, and, as a Christian, I really appreciated it. 

If you’re like me and trying to catch up on the Signed, Sealed, Delivered franchise, you’ll be happy when you land here.  Lost Without You shows exactly why Hallmark has kept this franchise going for so long.  You’ll enjoy every second of it.

This movie is part of the Signed, Sealed, Delivered Movies 5-8 Collection.