Summaries

Synopsis

This offbeat film begins with an 'industry-on-parade' type montage of the printing industry: presses, inks, hanging papers drying, etc. Then the film widens and tells us that this is a story about greeting cards and greeting card writers. After all, writing them is the 'ultimate challenge - novels are for people who can't edit themselves'. When top Valentine's Day card writer Ray (Bob Odenkirk) is fired by his boss, he is forced into menial work to pay the rent, Eventually he even has an indoor yard sale to raise the rent money. It is at this point the plot makes a major turn: the Mayor declares a new holiday: one for girlfriends and announces serious money for the greeting card best expressing feelings for a girlfriend. The movie then turns into a hard-boiled detective story complete with bad guys, hot dames, double crosses, crooked cops and what we've all come to expect from a 'Mickey Spillane'-type story. Greeting card writers hang out in a bar called 'Card Sharps', double-entendres galore come out of the mouths of characters, and other fun things happen. Ray eventually is seduced by Jill, the dame who becomes his muse and unblocks his writer's block allowing him to write the winning Girlfriend's Day card. As sappy music plays in the background a montage of people reading Ray's card is shown (a true 'Hallmark Moment'). The fun, quirky film ends with a voice-over from Ray: he isn't a professional greeting card writer anymore, he no longer sells his feelings, he saves them for someone special.