I have nothing against 'chick flicks' as they are the films normal girls like, just as action movies are for normal boys, 'PS I Love You' the big word-of-mouth movie on opinion sites in 2008 and so at least worth a look. And with blockbusters doing the excellent five older movies for the whole week for just five quid rental it seemed the right time to rent it.
Based on the book by the same name by the young and gorgeous Cecilia Ahern, 21 when she wrote it, now a best selling 'chick lit' author (or as Tony parsons calls it, "cl*t lit", making this a cl*t lick flick.lol), it is a film aimed solely at women and so a minefield for boys, one of those films your girl rents in the hope some of that romance they seek all their lives hopefully rubs off on you when you snuggle on the sofa. These films have a lot to answer for, right guys! Women tend to rent films by the cover, the recent epidemic of pink on the covers helping to boost chic lit rentals.
Hilary Swank in the lead is not the most attractive actress and a surprise pick for this type of role for me, almost carrying on her fluffy character from the superior Freedom Writers, very much the poor mans Jennifer Garner. Gerard Butlers Irish accent was embarrassing and the less said about that the better. But the real problem was the director, who thought it wise to radically alter the script and settings from the book and up sticks it from Dublin to Manhattan, sucking the life out of the books rustic romance,
the film ending up like 'Friends meets the 'Sex in the City' movie, dumping it in unoriginal territory and so losing the freshness and youth of the book.
-The Cast-
Hilary Swank ... Holly Gerard Butler ... Gerry Lisa Kudrow ... Denise Gina Gershon ... Sharon James Marsters ... John Kathy Bates ... Patricia Harry Connick Jr.... Daniel Nellie McKay ... Ciara Jeffrey Dean Morgan ... William Christopher Whalen ... George Dean Winters ... Tom Anne Kent ... Rose Kennedy Brian McGrath ... Martin Kennedy
-The Plot-
City girl Holly (Swank) is married to country boy Gerry (Butler), he moving to Manhattan from Ireland to be with her. We meet them having a row over babies and mother-in-laws, your standard couple bugbear. The next time we meet them Gerard has died of cancer and we are at the funeral with Holly's family and friends, a sudden illness and the tears flowing, even the priest joining in with the naughty lyrics of the song Fairytale of New York to lighten the mood.
Holly's best friends, Denise (Lisa Kudrow) and Sharon (Gina Gershon) rally around her to pull her through this tough time, mum (Kathy Bates), who runs a bar in Manhattan, the shoulder to cry on, she too alone and widowed. This support network should get her through it. But her departed hubby knows her better than that and so makes provisions from beyond the grave to lift her mood, especially as her 30th birthday approaches, sending a series of letters through those friends and family with some clever timing to set her some tasks to get over him. Everything from stripping on stage at a gay club to a holiday with her friends in Ireland is organised by Gerry as she slowly begins to let her emotions flood out-via her obsession with Betty Davies-and realises there is life beyond the man of her dreams who is now in heaven, perhaps even to love again.
On these journeys she meets another handsome Irishman in Ireland, John (James Marsters), and befriends the barman at her mom's Irish pub, young Danny (Harry Connick Jr), willing to offer more than his ear for her troubles, two potential suitors, but still pines for her man as the letters keep coming. But only when she realises how selfish she has been to those friends and family that only want to help does she grasp what the letters are really about.
-The Conclusion-
I'm sure the girls will blub in all the right places and gay men too, but for straight guys this is too girl centric and so you wont get much from it in the way you would from say The Notebook or Ghost, romantic movies with a message and narrative. This has been sanitised by the director rather too much for me to make it appeal to that Friends and Sex in the City crowd and perhaps sucked the life out of the book, shoes and fashion not flowers and romance seeking the cameras eye. The author bravely defends the movie version in the special features but setting it in America suffocates its Irish charm.
It does have its faults and maybe by me identifying them that's the fundamental difference between men and women. All of the members that have given it five out of five on dooyoo have been females. But for me it lacks real passion and there's little chemistry between Butler and the still masculine Hilary Swank in this genre, perhaps picking roles like this so not to be stereotyped as the tomboy lesbian with attitude role she wins all the awards with wearing her serious acting hat, earning her Oscars for Boys don't Cry and the grossly over-rated Million Dollar Baby. I am a romantic guy at heart and do sniffle at the end of films like Cinema Paridiso and Ghost but this just didn't have that emotion or engagement for me. It is a classic chick flick, how women want romance to be but get quickly bored of when it is, the mysteries of the female species men will never work out...
= = = = = Special Features = = = = =
-A conversation with Cecilia Ahern-
She's kind of cute guys and very Irish, but obsequies and polite about the movie of her book.
-Music Video: 'Same Mistake'-
James Blunts whiney troubadour song get sits own slot here.
-The Name of the Game is 'Snaps'-
The films director invents a silly game called 'snaps' in the movie. This spoof sketch explains it.
-Additional Scenes-
Quite a bundle of deleted or extended scenes here guys.
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Comedy - Director: Tony Dow - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: John Challis, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tessa Peake-Jones, Gwyneth Strong
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Based on the best-selling novel from Cecelia Ahern,P.S. I Love Youis far more than the ... more
standard chick flick that it may first appear to be. Relocating the novel from Ireland to America, multiple Oscar-winner Hilary Swank stars as the young woman who ha...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Based on the best-selling novel from Cecelia Ahern,P.S. I Love Youis far more than the ... more
standard chick flick that it may first appear to be. Relocating the novel from Ireland to America, multiple Oscar-winner Hilary Swank stars as the young woman who ha...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: appeals to the emotions providing laughs and cries, good performances, story line Disadvantages: book is supposed to be superior, Gerry's accent
![P.S. I Love You [DVD] [2008]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78691190.jpg "P.S. I Love You [DVD] [2008]")
Sep 15th, 2009
(Sep 18th, 2009)
very helpful by (100%):
