Unashamedly reaches for the heart and fails to grasp. Unless you want it to.

Rating: Null/10 (13 March 2008)

A film aimed squarely at a female audience, P.S. I LOVE YOU.
Holly Kennedy (the handsome Hilary Swank) is a young widow who finds that her late husband (Gerard Butler) has left her a series of letters to help her start a new life. She follows the instructions in the letters and, with the help of her friends, embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
Films about love and human relationships are films that I enjoy most. Sadly, I was not able to connect with this film on any satisfactory level.
The film starts perfectly. The opening minutes show a dispute between Holly and her husband and this is well done, energised by hand-held, sometimes out of focus camera work. But the scene is far too drawn out and, after five minutes, starts to feel like a rough cut and becomes tiring.
In fact, the whole film is too drawn out and, at times, rather clumsy. Some scenes labour to be moving, smothered in sorrowful music, which only serves to distance the audience.
There's comedy in the form of Lisa Kudrow playing a supportive friend, a leprechaun singing telegram and an Asperger's suffering love interest (Harry Connick Jr.) who says exactly what he thinks without any consideration for those around him.
There's a certain unfairness to the late husband's letters. While they are well-intentioned, Holly develops an unhealthy dependence on them. And the subplot involving her father's separation from her mother (Kathy Bates) feels "thrown in" and makes the film uneven.
Equally poor is the use of coincidence late in the story and the final scene which involves a meeting.
P.S. I LOVE YOU constantly, unashamedly, reaches for the heart - without any tact or subtlety - and fails to grasp. Unless you want it to. Unless you are willing to overlook its very contrived scenes and clumsy construction and go along for the ride, to indulge in the tissues.