P.S. I Love You

STARRING: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 12/21/2007 DATE SCREENED: 11/29/2007 The Verdict NOT GOOD - Wait for cable

Academy Award winning actress Hilary Swank, who will always be the female Karate Kid to me, teams with Gerard Butler in P.S. I Love You. I would have expected any late year film from her to be an attempt to nab her 3^rd Oscar, but there is no way she could have expected any Oscar buzz from this romantic comedy.

P.S. I Love You does have a twist to differentiate itself from the generic romantic comedy we’ve seen countless times before. The twist is that one of the characters is dead. That’s not a misprint, as early in the film Holly (Swank) is devastated when her husband Gerry dies of a brain tumor. Gerry does not come back as a ghost, but knowing how his impending death would affect Hilary, he devised a way to speak to her from the dead.

To the chagrin of her friends and family, Hilary reacts to her husband’s death by spending all her time locked in her apartment crying, watching tv, and ordering in. When they come over to surprise her for her 30^th birthday, there is also a surprise gift from Gerry. He has left a recorded message for Holly that not only wishes her a happy birthday, but tells her that she can expect more letters from him over the course of a year and she must do everything asked of her in the letters. Holly is now able to go on with her life, knowing that she will hear from her husband again. Every letter ends with the line “P.S. I Love You”. Does anyone other than me have a problem with this premise? Not Holly’s two friends, played by Lisa Kudrow & Gina Gershon. A bartender, named Daniel, who befriends Holly does end up having a big problem with it. While he’s falling in love with Holly, she is not able to get over her husband. The tasks she must complete range from doing karaoke to visiting Gerry’s family in Ireland. All the while we also see flashbacks that show how Holly & Gerry met and how they ended up falling in love. Eventually, Holly must decide if she can let go and give her heart to another man, like Daniel, or if she is going to spend her life in mourning over her dead husband.

For a romantic comedy, this movie is not funny or romantic. Lisa Kudrow is amusing at times, but her best lines can be seen in the trailer. I did not find anything romantic about a husband not allowing his wife to let go by ordering her around for an entire year after his death. I actually found the idea offensive. The story of how Holly & Gerry met and fell in love was not based in any kind of reality, and they don’t have any kind of chemistry together. The crowd at the screening had almost no reaction to the film, so I don’t know that any women found it romantic either. Hillary Swank does do her part by giving another very good performance, but there is nothing that she could have done to save this script. So what you have is a film that is well acted but forgettable. Wait for cable.