P.S. I LOVE YOU
Director: Richard LaGravenese Stars: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, Kathy Bates, Harry Connick jr, James Marsters, Jeffery Dean Morgan, Dean Winters
Reviewed by GREG KING
This romantic weepy reunites dual Oscar winner Hilary Swank with her Freedom Writers director Richard LaGravenese; however, this time their collaboration is a little less inspiring and a little bit more mawkish.
Holly Kennedy (Swank) and her husband Gerry (Gerard Butler) are a typical couple, who fight over life’s little difficulties, (money, kids, their future, etc) but who still love each other deeply, madly. But when Gerry dies of a brain tumour she is devastated. But then she starts receiving a series of letters written by Gerry, and they delivered at random over the course of a year. The letters are designed to help her work her way through the grieving process and allow her to get on with her life. He has also thoughtfully arranged a holiday for her and her two friends (Lisa Kudrow and Gina Gershon) to Ireland, so that she can also reminisce about how she first met Gerry and fell in love with him.
If you can suspend disbelief and go along with this off beat premise then P.S. I Love You is certainly not without its charms as a romantic drama, and it will easily have the more sensitive amongst the audience reaching for the tissues.
Normally Swank is excellent in solid, dramatic roles, but she seems a little uncomfortable with lightweight roles such as this. She is unconvincing as the grieving widow, and there is a lack of real chemistry between her and her co-star Butler. Last seen as an impressively beefed up Spartan warrior battling the Persian hordes in 300, Butler has a chance to show off his lighter side here as the likeable Irish rogue. Although he appears mainly in a series of extended flashbacks, he cracks jokes, smiles winningly, and even sings his own songs.
Kathy Bates has often squandered her talent in thankless small motherly roles in a series of awful films (Fred Claus, etc), but here she is given a role of some substance and emotional depth, and she delivers a fine performance. Kudrow and Gershon bring some much-needed comic relief to the material, while Harry Connick jr is effective as Dan, the sensitive bar tender and possible future love interest for Holly.
The film is beautifully photographed, especially those scenes set in Ireland, and has a great music score. But somehow P.S. I Love You eventually overstays its welcome. With a generous running time of two hours it is too long for what it sets out to do; it seems a little repetitive and some scenes smack of unnecessary padding. The film would have benefited from being 20 minutes shorter, possibly making it punchier, and its emotional impact much more effective.
***
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
This is an unabashed love story that is meant to tug on the heart strings – and will for most audiences who like to surrender to love stories.
The film opens with an argument between Holly (Hilary Swank) and her husband, Gerry (Gerard Butler, late of Phantom Of The Opera and 300 where he was Leonidas with a Scots accent). They bicker, reconcile, show that this could be a vigorous happy marriage and then the credits come on. Then, after a few minutes, we are told that Gerry has died of a tumour. No, this is not a ghost story, but Gerry and his spirit do linger long in Holly’s life and grief.
Her tough mother (Kathy Bates) and her close friends (Gina Gershon and a comic Lisa Kudrow) try to shake her out of her reclusiveness and provide a birthday cake – and a letter from Gerry. He has left a series of letters (all with PS I love you) and the film shows how Holly follows their lead and is able, not to bring him back to life, but allow herself to be brought back to life by his loving letters. Since Gerry was Irish, this involves a trip to Ireland with her friends and the chance to meet his family – and an old musical friend (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
Hilary Swank, we know, is quite a strong screen personality so Holly comes across forcefully even in her grief. Harry Connick Jr has a good role as a barman who suffers from a syndrome that leads him to blurt out the blunt truth of what he is really thinking. And he provides a shoulder for Holly to cry on.
This is a mixture of laughter and tears – and there is a nice piece of information at the end which gives some deeper meaning to what has happened to Holly.