A little boy's 'Letters to God'

A little boy with cancer puts his fears, hopes and prayers into letters written to God.

A troubled, cynical postal worker inherits the job of dealing with those letters, and taking that duty seriously changes his life.

But even though lip service is paid to cynicism and even skepticism in "Letters to God," that's not what this indie drama is about. It's about how a child's faith spreads to those around him and softens their hearts.

A good-looking but slow and bland, faith-based tearjerker, "Letters" is a depressingly unemotional affair, with writing and some of the acting so flat that even its emotionally loaded situations can't inspire waterworks.

Jeffrey S.S. Johnson plays Brady, the alcoholic postal worker who is given a route that requires him to pick up the letters from young Tyler (Tanner Maguire). Brady finds himself talking to the kid and his mom (Robyn Lively). The letters help Brady accept advice from preachers and get his act together. But as Tyler's plight draws in others, Mom is just frazzled by religion pushing into her worry and grief over Tyler's condition.

Still, Johnson and Lively are engaging, and Ralph "Pa Walton" Waite has a cute cameo as a cranky ex-thespian.

But whatever flashes of conflict turn up in the four-writers script are quickly rubbed off in some misguided attempt to render everything and everyone "nice." Thus, while "Letters to God" is certainly family-friendly, the blandness robs it of whatever emotion or redemption the filmmakers were shooting for. No matter how tearful your intent, don't forget what the Greeks dropped into epistles to the ancient Hebrews: "No conflict, no drama."