P.S. I Love You is a 2007 romantic drama about love, loss, and trying to move on when there seems no hope.
THE STORY: Happily married New York City couple Holly (Hilary Swank) and Gerry (Gerard Butler) are a picture perfect couple, though when Gerry suddenly dies, it sends Holly into a spiral. On her 30th birthday, friends and family gather, hoping to shift her into a new stage of life, but when a cake arrives with a letter from Gerry, it’s the start a long series of such, all signed “P.S. I Love You.” Are these notes from her past holding her back or are they helping her redefine who she’s to become?
Director: Richard LaGravenese
Writers: Richard LaGravenese, Steven Rogers
Stars: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Harry Connick Jr.
THE RUNDOWN: This is not a good movie. Absurd to a degree, it’s really hard to get behind the premise, but more so since director Richard LaGravenese is committed to the silly melodrama and contrived setpieces that just come off more awkward than sincere. Well, most of the time. Sometimes it works. Swank does what she can, but she’s not a rom-com actress and does much better when she’s allowed to bare her soul. Trying too hard for gooey, this is a misfire with a few good performances lost in the haze of silly romantic fantasy.
Easily the best thing about this movie is its supporting characters with Lisa Kudrow, Kathy Bates, and Harry Connick Jr. making the best impression.
For die hard sappy romantics only, this is a cliché-riddled drama that is textbook 101 from start to finish.
THAT MOMENT: The idea of a message sent by a loved one who has passed on is not exactly a new one, the movies having explored emotional connections with departed well enough before. However, the hook here is that letters from the deceased keep coming, and during the course of the story, Holly comes to remember her relationship with Gerry but also travel along a path of rediscovery, and maybe a chance for love again. Big surprise, right?
Meanwhile, there are the people who orbit in the newly-chaotic world of Holly, including her friends Denise (Lisa Kudrow) and Sharon (Gina Gershon), who do what they can, providing bits of heart and comedy. Then there’s Daniel (Harry Connick Jr.), the bartender at the pub and restaurant owned by Holly’s mother (Kathy Bates). He’s not all that close with the family, but has admired Holly from afar and doesn’t quite know how to talk to the widow, often putting his foot in his mouth. When he asks her how Gerry died, his response to “brain tumor” is “Nice!” Nice.
Obviously, their paths cross often, though Daniel doesn’t buy into the sympathy thing at all, telling her straight out (well after Gerry passes) that he thinks Holly is ‘hot,’ more delicately apologizing by telling her he has a condition that leaves him without filters. Also, his fiancé left him last year. For another woman. Who was his first fiancé. And business partner. Interestingly, it’s little confessions like this that sort of bring them together … as friends, even if he’s looking for more. A lot more. Still, hard to move on when getting letters every month from a dead husband.
Either way, hearts do as hearts do, and Daniel grows more smitten with Holly, even as she flies off to Ireland and has herself a little fling with a fella who turns out to be Gerry’s childhood best friend. Plays a good guitar though. And is good with the whole sex thing. Just a bit too early – and familiar – for Holly. Once back home, she begins to wither again, the letters slowly wearing her down, though becomes inspired to nurture a new passion for fashion footwear. Good thing Denise is getting married and could use a fancy pair.
At last, she meets Daniel again, joining him for a lunch at a nice place with big red booths, and she finally seems relaxed, though is still talking only about Gerry and how he seems to be guiding her from beyond the grave. Terrific table talk. Daniel sits and stares, still in love with her and tries to divert her attention, telling her that she looks great, hoping the compliment will be reciprocated. It’s not. And as he tries to poke some fun with it, and actually gets her to laugh, she does the unthinkable. She calls him Gerry.
With that, Daniel bites back. How he does and what he says, changes everything.
WHY IT MATTERS: Most movies like this all come down to the speech. Even back in the Golden Age there was always a verbal blast that hit the hardest, from Rhett Butler to Charlie Allnut, but to really know how well it can be done, we need look only so far back as 1989 and the classic When Harry Met Sally. You know the scene. That final bit when Harry tells Sally why he can’t be without her and the little crinkle above her nose … it’s still the Platinum Standard. That’s one heck of a speech.
Sure, Daniel might not be in the best movie to give such a good speech, but it’s a grand effort and I really like what he says and the impact it has. “You think you’re ever going to feel about somebody else the way you felt about Gerry,” he snaps, “or do you have to wait for one of your letters to figure that out?” Zip-bang. But he’s not done. “I really like you,” he keeps going, “but I can’t be the invisible man. I’m tired of being the shoulder. I want to be another body part you need. You know? I want to be … the bad guy. I want a woman to go crazy over me, and then I want to use her up until she’s ruined for all other men.”
Sensing what’s happening, Holly tell him that this is not what he really wants to do, and of course he admits that’s true, but that he would like to date a woman who actually like men. And then:
“I’d like to be somebody’s Gerry.”
He then apologizes for falling for her and leaves her alone in the booth, which naturally has her thinking pretty deeply about what she’s become. What follows is the film’s most touching moment when, well … that’s up to you find out for yourself.
Either way, I really like this bit with Daniel, a tertiary character that always sort of plays in the background, even though we – the smart audience – knows his time is coming. Connick Jr. has this fetching sort of casual warmth about him that suits the damaged Daniel well. He’s a lonely, troubled guy who has a lot to offer but not the tools to let the good girls know he does.
Daniel is a patient and respectful guy, not quite so good at hiding his affections, but always hopeful this time is going to be the moment Holly turns the corner for him, and I like how he sits in this big red booth with the excited girl of his dreams across from him and endures more and more about the lost Gerry, struggling to get her to really ‘see’ him, a living, breathing man right in front of her. I like too how he actually leaves after his terrific one-liner about another letter and then comes back to say more.
It’s this part of his speech that’s the most affecting, when he tries to sound hard, telling her he wants to ruin a woman for all other men, something that is a clear reflection of what she has done to him. That’s great stuff simply because it’s so on the money for what this feel like, being unable to get a person you really feel a great need for to try and see that for themselves. In a movie that placates all too often to the low hanging fruit of romantic dramas, this is really good writing.
Finally, I like that the movie uses this moment right, kicking Holly out of a rut and for the right reasons and with the right direction. Yes, this is a smarmy, manipulative flick that plucks the same old strings any in the genre have played on for generations, but for many, that’s all it takes. It cheats with its ending and all too easily wraps up all the great things it built with Daniel, but, meh, what’ya gonna do? It’s the movies. Either way, it’s a little journey to a lunchtime restaurant booth where a man in love lays it on the table that makes for all the reason to watch. It’s a great movie moment.