P.S. I Love You

[ivyfic]

Proving once again that I am powerless to resist any movie with an actor I'm crushing on in it, I watched P.S. I Love You.

I can see how this story would work in book form (though I haven't read it), but as a movie, it's all over the place. There are many good moments, but the overall ark of the movie sort of...isn't. There are a billion characters whose own arcs aren't followed through. I wasn't sure till the very end who some of those people were (I'm still not). Besides that the idea of the movie is just creepy. I'm sorry! It is. Her having this relationship with letters from her dead husband as if it's actually interactive. It reminds me of cesperanza's SGA fic OK Computer, where Rodney builds a VR version of John after John dies. Except ces dealt with the problems of that set-up and I actually liked that story.

The movie had a lot of good moments--the individual scenes were generally quite good (except for all the many scenes with the dead husband which were generic romantic comedy). James Marsters has a great bit part. And of course, there's Jeffrey Dean Morgan's ass. Let me think on that for a moment.

While Irish accents are normally hot, inherently, I actually really didn't like JDM doing an Irish accent. For one it was really bad. Especially in a movie where he's against Gerard Butler who actually has one so you can hear the difference. Besides that, I think JDM's voice is sexy in general, and doing the accent covered up some of that normal sexiness. So let's have him play Americans from now on, hmm?

They also didn't really deal with the whole "oops, I just slept with my best friend's widow" thing. I loved that moment of recognition, and it made me realize I really wanted to be watching a different film entirely. A film where Holly and Gerry had a summer fling years ago and it didn't work out for either stupid teenage reasons or because of serendipity, like Gerry lost the piece of paper with Holly's phone number on it. I don't know. Insert plot contrivance here. But Gerry's always lamented the girl that got away to the point where William (JDM) knows all about it. Years later, William sleeps with this girl he meets at a pub (hmm, you think she has a type?), and only after realizes she's Gerry's Holly. And he totally would never have slept with the girl that his best friend was still holding a torch for, but he didn't know, and he kind of thinks he loves her, but then Gerry comes back into the picture and maybe Holly still has feelings for him, and it's this great source of contention between the two of them... Wouldn't that be a better movie? Of course, if I was writing it, William and Gerry would end up together in the end.

You know, it's a bad sign when the movie that's playing in my head is a lot better than the one on the screen.

Comments

[sasha-b.livejournal.com]

UGH. I cannot stand Hillary Swank. She has a distracting face. And not in a good way. :p I do however love Gerard Butler - although I thought he was Scottish? I think I'll be skipping this one. ;)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd recommend skipping it. Well, whatever accent Butler has, it's an actual accent, as opposed to JDM's "if I lilt when I talk I'll sound Irish" accent. Which, as I said, is a damn waste of such a sexy voice. Really the only reason to watch is JDM's ass. :)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Funny, I watched Catch and Release this weekend which had a similar set-up--getting to know a loved one better after they died--but the requisite "fuck to get over the sadness" was recognized for how weird it was and it didn't make missing the other person go away. Equally obnoxious lead chick to Hillary Swank, too: Jennifer Garner.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I watched Catch and Release with trakkie. I also didn't like it, but it at least dealt with the grief. It had her getting pissed at her dead fiance, learning things that she wanted to ask him about but couldn't and how much that hurt. So it gets points for that. P.S. I Love You is just so hopelessly naive about the grieving process. For Swank, she just misses him, that's it. There's no conflict, no selfishness, no ambivalence, no confusion. And forget about Gerard Butler's character--no one's selfless enough to spend there last few months on earth entirely focused on someone else. I just don't believe that.

In Catch and Release, I also loved the guy friend that was like, well, I've always loved you and we're friends, and now your fiance's dead, so we should get together, y/y? And how it's pointed out how stupid that assumption is.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Catch and Release was predictable but entertaining enough. Honestly, my biggest problem with it was the mistreatment of Kevin Smith's character. No, I don't have a problem with the heavier guy onscreen having an eating problem and liking food excessively, but it felt like cheap characterization. And, of course, because he is heavy, his romantic sub plot had to be ridiculous. (He also got stuck with the floozy.)

That guy friend was sad, but yeah, he was far too creepy. Dude, you just don't cherish that sort of thing and then spring it on someone even if you think that their sleeping with someone else means they're over the dead lover. It just seems like you've been waiting for that guy to die...

[mithras03.livejournal.com]

dude - gerard butler is scottish :-P i was actually disappointed that they made him irish for the film, b/c he's hot and scottish - why change it? (haven't seen it though since i think the idea is dumb, and hilary swank canNOT play feminine - just can't - and isn't romcom material - the thought of her and butler together makes me gag)