Critics strike out with me again...PS I Love You is a romance to write home about

Rating: 8/10 (8 January 2008)

I wanted to see PS I Love You and I knew my girlfriend would love it too. The critics scathing reviews immediately scared me although I try not to listen but it seemed that they were pretty certain it was a dud and the few people I spoke to that had seen it seemed to agree. So it was with caution and perhaps low expectations that we went to see it and I am so glad I once again ignored their bad comments. PS I Love You is a very down to business, cute romance with a beautiful story, touching moments and YES it actually brought some tears to my eyes...just once...briefly...and it's really something for a film to do that for me. Certainly the film is not your traditional love story because the main characters' romance begins with one of them dying. But the film makers still weave this beautiful, touching story with some great performances and a new romance blooming in the background without ever infringing or depreciating the original romance. In some ways it could be described as a little shallow and without a lot of content but it's meant to make you feel good in a very dark comedy kind of way. They poke fun at death a little bit and come out with some seemingly crude off color humor but it fits into the story just perfectly.
Multiple Academy Award Winner Hilary Swank plays Holly Kennedy, the happily married, financially struggling wife who finds herself a widow before too long. Devastated and depressed she finds herself on an obscure adventure set up by her husband before he died. It's really a self discovering trip and Swank has a certain likability and it works really well for this film because she carries a lot of the story and the romance single handedly. She does very well. Gerard Butler is handsome and adorable as her husband Gerry. Butler and Swank do have terrific chemistry which is absolutely pertinent for this type of film obviously. Butler does a lot of voice work and his deep masculine voice works well for the film. The supporting cast around the couple is really the soul of this film because even though their parts are small they all work really well together and they are a terrific ensemble cast. Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, James Marsters (so cool to see him on the big screen---been a big fan since Buffy days) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan is terrific and equally as great a presence as Butler is. Honestly I could have done without Harry Connick Jr. as Swank's first love interest. I thought he was kind of goofy and out of place in the film although he redeems himself a little later on in the film. And finally an honorable mention to the incomparable Kathy Bates as Swank's mother. She has her own little back story and she is really terrific and just ups the ante of the cast immediately. I wish she'd do more on screen!!
The film jumps around from flash backs (including some beautiful Irish scenery), to voice over letter reading to karaoke scenes, fishing, and some very good physical comedy. The one liners and some of the comedy is a little dark and you almost wonder if you should be laughing at it but they deal with love and death in a very open and unhindered way and its very refreshing and a different approach to the romance genre. The cast is great and the romance is well dealt with and considering how they set up this intense and passionate romance between Butler and Swank they still make you enjoy her new romance in the horizon and not feel any animosity for her moving on. I also have to give them HUGE kudos to the ending because I was thoroughly disappointed with what I thought the ending would be and they completely surprised me and I loved it. So ignore all the harsh critics and enjoy this really cute and fun and a little dark date movie that anyone can have fun with. And if you're wondering when my eyes welled up it was the scene when she doing Karaoke and everyone else faded away and her husband was sitting there listening to her...got me...right here. Go see it. 8.5/10