From beyond the grave .. with love

Rating: 5/10 (13 October 2012)

Interesting idea doesn't quite achieve its goal for me, Swank is a better actress than this material that attempts to milk the audience for every tear-drop. A bittersweet story of a widow who continues to receive letters from her dead husband (Butler) that enable her to reflect on their marriage and to close its door and embark on the possibility of a new relationship. Harry Connick, Jnr is one of those possibilities, while in the midst of his "Grey's Anatomy" mini-fame, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and his five-o'clock shadowed dimples is another.
Gina Gershon ("Cocktail") and Lisa Kudrow play Swank's girlfriends, Kudrow on a mission to find Mr Right who predictably ends up cracking onto only homosexuals and unavailables in a clichéd sub-plot. Gershon was (and still is) an attractive supporting actress, once an action-man's muse ("Red Heat", "Out for Justice"), but has much less to do here, and seems out of place. Kathy Bates plays Swank's apparently unsympathetic mother who wasn't a fan of her daughter's rocky union with Butler.
Probably too much a 'chick flick' to satisfy most blokes, it's somewhat over-indulgent in the treatment of the themes, aiming for maximum sympathy without doing enough to earn the damp eyes. More than an awkward moment or two at which to cringe and Swank shines through in a dedicated performance, but one wonders whether it was living beyond its means.