P.S. I Love You | Christian Toto saw | ENTERTAINMENT
P.S. I Love You
May/09/08 11:19 PM Filed in: Christian Toto
saw
What film goers got late last year was the complete opposite - a ham-fisted comedy with grating performances across the board.
If they ever try a second adaptation they'll have nowhere to go but up.
Holly (Hilary Swank) loses her husband, Gerry (Gerard Butler) to a brain tumor in the opening moments of the film. She's heartbroken, obviously, but her gaggle of friends and family give her little time to mope.
It's been three weeks, they complain, lighten up.
It's the first sign "P.S." holds little regard for compassion, let alone reality.
That same night Holly gets the first of many messages from beyond the grave. Before Gerry died, he wrote a series of letters to Holly and rigged it so they get sent to her at different points in the future. The missives tell Holly to celebrate life -- hang with her girlfriends, travel and go shopping.
Bet most ladies wish they got those kinds of messages from their living spouses.
But Holly is torn between following her late husband's wishes and moving on to the next stage in life.
Swank, she of the two Oscars and lithe physique, turns in an abysmal performance amidst a sea of cloying turns. Love her abs, but there's nothing else in her work here worth admiring. Butler's Gerry fares better, but he's so idealized and cutesy the character never comes fully alive during any of the extended flashbacks.
Only Lisa Kudrow makes a solid impression as Holly's best friend. Kudrow, who deserves a steady diet of film roles, smacks the movie's few strong lines out of the park without breaking a sweat.
The opposite holds true for Harry Connick, Jr. The crooner turned actor recites the kind of drab dialogue you might find in a rom-com satire. It's a shame Hollywood hasn't figured out what to do with Connick, Jr. yet. In another era, he'd be a box office titan with his thick brown hair, marquee worthy mug and way with a love song.
Scene after scene in "P.S. I Love You" falls flatter than Swank's ripped abs. Holly and the girls go fishing, each dressed as if they were about to walk the runway in Milan. Holly meets another charming Irish gent, and then keeps bumping into him as if Ireland were the size of one crowded pub.
Let's hope Swank doesn't get within 100 yards of another romantic comedy as hackneyed as "P.S. I Love You."
The goods: "P.S. I Love You" loses its way in the second scene and never looks back. The wake sequence just feels wrong, a tacky affair in which Holly hardly appears to be mourning and Gerry's best friends swap heartfelt remembrances without every choking up or getting lost in their sadness. Butler has charisma to burn, but his natural intensity is wasted in such a one-dimensional part.
The Mandatory Extras: Not many. Viewers get a few deleted scenes that are even worse than the ones that made the final cut, a James Blunt music video and a clever, '50s style primer on the word game "Snaps" which plays a tiny role in the film. Let's be grateful a horrible scene in which a dying Gerry visits a travel agency to plan out Holly's future vacation never made it to theaters.
Above and Beyond: The best material in the extras belongs to Ahern, an Irish writer who describes how she wrote "P.S." at the tender age of 21. She's delighted Hollywood took notice, apparently, even if viewers may disagree with the results. The featurette also includes brief commentaries from the film's stars and writer/director Richard LaGravenese ("Freedom Writers") Everyone involved, especially the great Kathy Bates, has done much better work than this.
— Christian Toto
