I saw P.S. I Love You a little while ago, and just remembered that I wanted to write about it, but had forgotten. The movie begins with an argument between Holly (Hillary Swank) and Gerry (Gerard Butler) who have been married for nine years since they were both quite young, and are trying to decide if and when to have children and what direction their lives will take. Holly is the responsible one in the relationship, while Gerry is the charming Irish rogue who refused to take life too seriously, and while they have issues, they clearly love each other.
Then, of course, fate gets in the way, and the next scene is Gerry’s funeral, where we discover that he has recently died of a brain tumor. Holly carries him home in his black and metal studded urn and then becomes a zombie invalid until she discovers that Gerry has set up a series of letters to be delivered to her over the course of the next year to bring her back to life.
What follows is a series of adventures which alternately cause Holly to move on in her life and remember (via convenient flashbacks) the life she and Gerry had together, including their chance meeting in Ireland.
I expected the movie to be an overdone emotional mess, but I was surprised at how well it was done, and that they don’t just find Holly another man to make her happy after she gets over the loss of her husband. While it’s pretty unrealistic that she becomes a shoe artist after only a year, it’s great to see the loss help her discover what she wants to do with her life, when she’d previously been working in a dead end job that was only to pay the bills.
In addition, it was nice to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan not be the dead guy for once after his roles in Grey’s Anatomy (where he played the dying/dead Denny Duquette), Weeds (as Judah, the dead husband of Nancy Botwin, pot dealer) and I think Supernatural (I believe he played the main characters’ father who was missing for the beginning of the series, and then died, though I’m not positive how that played out). He’s a good actor, though his Irish accent seemed incredibly contrived.
If you’re one of those people who needs a good cry every now and then, P.S. I Love You is a good way to get that cry out of the way. It’s a tear jerker, not just when Gerry has first died, but when you discover how they met and came to be together. It’s very sweet, but realizing that they had that kind of love and lost it is pretty depressing, though Holly’s journey to find herself is more life affirming.
Man, I saw this movie in theatres and must have cried the entire time. It was so well done, and I just adore Gerard Butler.
I’m going to have to agree with you wholeheartedly. Thought it might be pretty cheesy–usually movies about people communicating after they’re dead are horrible and unrealistic (have you seen Saw IV?) but this movie did it so well. Loved every minute of it.
By: urbanvamp on July 14, 2008
at 8:14 pm
(I liked ur review…..and ur site looks awesome)
According to Wikipedia,the movie is slighlty based on the book.Of course film-makers wanted 100% to get this movie amercanized so it can be widely popular.This truely wasn’t what i was expecting.The script is poorly developed.
P.S is about a widow and the aftermath of her husband death.The cast was not that remarkable.Lisa Kudrow still can’t get away from Phoebe’s shadow.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan performance was nice and he has a great Irish accent,probably i would say better than Gerard Butler.Total Result: 5/10
So Should i read the book?? Definitely
By: Bobby on July 24, 2008
at 5:05 pm