Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
12/25/07
I am a firm believer that
if it's well done, anyone can enjoy any kind of movie. So, I've never
been one to run from titles (OK, I ran from Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya
Sisterhood, but what man didn't???) just because they come bearing
the mark of Chick Flick. After all, Pretty Woman is one of
my all-time favorite movies (did I just play the “Some of my favorite movies
are Chick Flicks” card?). But I think that where genre (and gender)
tastes come into play is when the movie isn't well done. Fans of
this site know very well I can be a sucker for certain kinds of sci-fi
and action junk even when it's not exactly up to code, but if women's shoes
are going to play a major role in your plot, you'd better have the goods.
P.S. I Love You, Richard LaGravenese's second Hilary Swank vehicle
this year (after the far superior Freedom
Writers), both leans heavily on the shoes and is an utter mess.
As such, it was at times quite painful to watch.
Holly (Hilary Swank) and
Gerry Kennedy (Gerard Butler) were very much in love and married for a
decade before he died from a brain tumor, sending her into a downward spiral
of shut-in despair and watching depressing movies from the 40's.
Her friends try to cheer her up: Gerry's business partner John (James
Marsters) and his wife Sharon (Gina Gershon), Holly's best friend Denise
(Lisa Kudrow) and Gerry's unsettlingly perky sister Rose (Anne Kent; and
yes, that does make her Rose Kennedy) shadow her every move without success
until a package from Gerry arrives on her 30th birthday. It's a tape
recording announcing that she will begin receiving letters he wrote before
his death, letters which will send her on a journey to rebuild her sense
of self, or at least distract her from the annoying attentions of rude
bartender Daniel Connelly (Harry Connick Jr.).
P.S. I Love You has
a lot of problems, and they work hard to undermine a really impressive
cast. Swank's done far better work elsewhere, but she's still easy
to root for and does a good job with Holly's quiet despair even if some
of her more histrionic moments don't play. And while Butler creates
a fun and memorably warm character in Gerry, he and Swank don't strike
much in the way of romantic sparks when we see them together. The
usually funny Kudrow is saddled with an excessively dour character, some
unfortunate slapstick and what may be the worst speech of the year, while
Gershon does her best to keep the movie's spirits up. I'm a Buffy/Angel
fan from way back, so I was delighted to see Marsters get a real movie
role, and he's quite good in a part that mostly just calls for him to be
the guy in the room. I just wish the movie didn't feel the need to
make an extraneous (and quite unfunny) Buffy joke because of his presence.
Kathy Bates is initially a pill as Holly's embittered mother until the
movie gets around to giving her some shading late in the game: then
she's got a couple of its' best scenes. But there's nothing that
can be done with Connick Jr.'s utterly awful role. We're told Daniel
has a “syndrome” complete with medication, but he's really just a bitter
jerk. The movie expects us to sympathize with him because he makes
a couple of sad speeches about never being the guy a girl actually wants,
but it's hard to feel for him when his own behavior so clearly underscores
why that is.
The letters themselves are
a non-starter, calling for Holly to complete banal tasks like singing Karaoke
and going fishing, and then to find what she really wants to do in life
(hint: shoes are involved). They also require her to center
her life around her recent tragedy far longer than is healthy and make
“everything about Holly” in a way seemingly designed to drive her friends
away. And despite constant insistence otherwise, not one of them
is particularly poignant or well-written. The one good thing they
require of her is to go to his native Ireland, because that's where the
movie briefly catches fire thanks to Jeffrey Dean Morgan's smooth, charismatic
performance as one of Gerry's old friends who just might represent a future
for Holly. It's telling that the only thing that ever brings the
movie to life is that opportunity to look forward, but then it's right
back to New York and into the slog of dwelling on Gerry's death.
And on shoes.
Like last summer's No
Reservations, P.S. I Love You is a very sad story filled with
sad people that desperately wants to be a wacky comedy. As such,
the characters are periodically required to leap into some silly mugging
to tell us how Really! Funny! They Are! But the movie's
heart isn't in it. Viewers hearts are unlikely to be either, unless
they're Chick Flick die-hards, who should bring extra Kleenex for the James
Blunt song over the end credits. |
