Pleasantly Surprised

Rating: 8/10 (4 October 2008)

Although I have always meant to get around to it, I have never read the book P.S I Love You, so I didn't really have any preconceptions of what this film was about, what the characters should have been like, or any changes to the actual storyline. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I love this film so much (I know that fans of the book are not so keen on the film), and in my experience, films based on books will never fail to disappoint, unless of course the viewer hasn't read the book first.
As you can tell by the 5 star rating, I loved this film, and I really wasn't expecting to! Reading the story line, I thought this would be dull, boring, full of moaning, grief and tears, no real action, full of the complaining of a mourning widow which, to be honest, didn't really interest me. But the film is so much more than that. From the opening scene where you see Holly and Gerry fighting, yet still feel their strong love beneath it you get a sense of what this film is about - real love, not the fairy tale type you see in most films, but real, genuine love despite knowing each others faults, and what to do once you have your 'fairy tale', but your prince charming dies and you're forced to go out into the real world again.
Hilary Swank's performance was faultless, she really conveyed the emotion Holly was feeling to the viewers and was incredibly appealing as a character, not making Holly too miserable at all. Gerard Butler wasn't in this film as much as I would have liked, but his parts where played incredibly well, though there wasn't really much to Gerry's character to play, mostly a lovable, loving, funny, warm, Irish guy. I wasn't a fan of Lisa Kudrow as Denise, but having not read the book am not sure whether that was what Denise's character was really like, or whether Kudrow just portrayed her poorly. Finally, Harry Conick Jr as Daniel deserves a mention too, and I would have liked to see more Daniel and Holly scenes.
I feel like this film is perfect in many ways, though there are a couple scenes I wasn't a fan of. The one that springs to mind was the sex scene between Holly and William. The film had kept my attention without fail the entire way through, but the 10-15 minutes where the three girls get stranded on the lake to where William is telling Holly story's about Gerry were at least in my opinion, a bit flat and weird, and I felt the film would have been better without them.
Overall though, I really do love this film. Maybe not for the fans of the books, but for everyone else, especially fans of chick-flicks, give this one a shot, but don't be put off by the thought of it just being a chick flick as it's so much more, heart-warming + heart breaking at the same time, it's funny, intelligent, and a beautiful story. One I won't forget in a hurry.