Certainly better than watching a rom com

Rating: 7/10 (8 January 2011)

Based on a bestselling novel by Irish Author Cecilia Ahern, P.S. I love You is the story of a young widow Holly Kennedy coping with life after her husband's death as a result of a brain tumor. To her, Gery was her "soulmate" and they were happy together despite many problems. On her 30th birthday not long after his death, a letter from Gery arrives from beyond the grave with the intent of helping her back on her feet. A total of 10 letters, one every month, is delivered to Holly,always ending with "P.S.I Love You" Of course, Holly's mother & friends are worried that these letters might make Holly retreat into herself more & tie herself to the past and this forms the "conflict" part of the story.
This movie certainly deals with a very delicate issue. The loss of any loved one is not something you ever "get over". You will only learn to live with the pain. As life takes over, it dulls a little but it always will be there as a reminder of what you have lost. Many a time, people become half of what they once were as a result of such loss. Thus, as far as the portrayal of the "grieving widow" goes, Hilary Swank does a great job. Gerard Butler also does a passable job as Gery and the rest of the cast are okay.
Despite all that, this movie does have flaws. For one thing, the general attitude of nearly all the supporting characters seems far too irrational with regards to Gery & Holly's loss. There were plenty of sequences of how holly saw Gery but they could've at least done one or two conversations to show what the others thought of him. Reading between the lines, you could see that he was not very popular among Holly's family & friends but no satisfying explanation is given. In addition to that, some characters like William & Daniel don't seem to contribute anything of note to the story to a point where some people might consider them a waste of space.
Overall, while not the greatest movie ever made, it's not the worst either and I would prefer to watch this over the alternative of a predictable, cheesy romantic comedy(taking this particular genre into consideration) My score-7/10