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Derek Malcolm's rating
Widow of opportunity
By
Derek Malcolm
3 Jan 2008
Hilary Swank is a notable actress. But she doesn't do either charm or humour enormously well. That, however, isn't the basic trouble in this fractured rom-com from Oscar-winning screenwriter turned director Richard LaGravenese.
Despite its leading lady, P.S. I Love You has a lightness of touch that in the end renders its message - how to come to terms with grief - almost invisible. Swank is a young widow who was always bickering with her husband (Gerard Butler) but can't cope when he dies of a brain tumour.
Matters are made worse when a series of letters arrive at her door, purportedly written by him as a kind of comfort blanket for when he leaves her. She is told to "get out and celebrate herself ".
Her new beginning, however, is fraught and Kathy Bates as her mum and Lisa Kudrow and Gina Gershon as her best friends determined to see her through widowhood become increasingly worried.
Even the steady flirting of her new would-be squeeze, Harry Connick Jr, doesn't comfort her much. But we know from previous experience of such stories that she'll battle her way through.
The film tries for both pathos and hilarity, sometimes at roughly the same time. But you never really know enough about any of the characters for them to become interesting. Added to that, the wildly varying tone eventually sinks the whole thing.
Moving the action from Dublin, where the book on which it is based was set, to New York was probably a mistake. And the feel-good ending just looks like the inevitable cop-out.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (3)
My husband and I both loved this movie. It was so refreshing to watch a sweet and romantic movie for a change. I am so tired of all the bad reviews and wonder if these people saw it at all! Try going to see this movie and watch without prior criticism. You might actually enjoy it for what it was meant to be.
- Mrs. Gerry Jones, Pinecliffe, Colorado, 05/01/2008 03:27
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We must have seen different movies. The one thing this movie did NOT have was a feel good ending. I thought they showed remarkable restraint not using a "storybook" ending which could have ended at Yankee Stadium, but a real, thought provoking ending that is even more uplifting.
Kathy Bates says it best near the end of the movie.
I hope everyone will give this movie a try, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
- Webberphan, Seattle, WA, USA, 04/01/2008 23:26
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Apparently, you saw a different movie than thousands of other viewers.
PS, I Love You.
It takes the real movie-goers on a plausible trip from not-uncommon moments in a loving marriage, through an incredibly untimely death of the emotionally stronger spouse, to the other side of such a loss, via the foresight of the lost spouse.
Sincere, forthright friendships and attempts at new relationships bring the humour no one expects but needs.
And a mother and child, estranged for a decade because of the youthful marriage between Holly and Gerry, are brought closer due to shared pain.
A beautiful film of real, flawed, loving people.
- Pislander, Vista, CA USA, 03/01/2008 19:15
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