PS I Love You

Genre:Drama
By Alcon Entertainment
Directed by Richard LaGravenese
Runtime: 126 minutes
Starring Hilary Swank (Holly Kennedy), Gerard Butler (Gerry Kennedy), Lisa Kudrow (Denise), Kathy Bates (Patricia), Harry Connick, Jr. (Daniel), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (William)


A Decent Adaptation Marred By Poor Casting
I read the book PS I Love You by Cecelia Ahern years before when an ex-colleague introduced me to it. She highly recommended it and thought what the husband did was really sweet. Well, the cancer-striken husband actually wrote his wife a letter in preparation for one year’s mourning on her part. He wrote her a letter to encourage her to get out and move on with her life after he departed the world.

What an awfully romantic premise isn’t it? Some critics said that the men will be cursing the male protagonist for setting such a high standard of expectations in men. Though I admit the premise of the book and movie (a very close adaptation) was truly romantic, I did not really enjoy the book. The storyline yes but not the book. Perhaps it was the writing, perhaps it was the tasks he set her. I thought many of them were irrelevant to her getting back on her feet except for the result of milking some laughs for the reader/audience.

Perhaps Hillary Swank, with her mediocre looks and hard face spoilt everything for me, everything a dreamy movie like this can salvage that the book did not do for me, was totally destroyed by the wrong casting of Hillary Swank. It’s not that I’m used to seeing her in hard roles like “Million Dollar Baby” and the other show she dressed like a man. In fact, I only watched one movie by her and “Million Dollar Baby” was tailored for her, what with her looks and figure.

But as the lead of a romantic movie, that was shown on Valentine’s Day. Come on, what was the casting department doing? Was Hillary Swank so hard up to change her direction that she begged them to mis-cast her as the hapless, very pretty Holly in the movie? Why Hillary? She may be a very competent actress. But the role in PS I Love You is just NOT suited for her! And it seems I’m not the only one who thinks so.

There is a barrage of female actresses who will be able to fit into this role like a hand into a glove. So many. So why Hillary? In fact, one critic even suggested Jennifer Garner. She may be the femme fatale in DareDevil, having been the fighting Elektra, yet she has this softness to her that may fit her well into this role. She has 6 or 8 pecs as well, Just like Hillary. She acted in action movies before too. So why not Garner? Anyway, what’s done is done and I do not have the power to change the minds of the top echelons in Hollywood. But it’s a MISTAKE to cast Hillary.

The screenplay added certain scenes to beef up the weak novel (which was a bestselling novel and propelled Cecelia Ahern from ignominy to popularity). The story opened, surprise, surprise with the couple bickering away and even throwing things at each other, or at least, only Hillary threw stuff at the ever charming and very very likeable Gerard Butler (who suddenly sings instead of howling like he did in 300).

Back to PS. I could not empathise with Holly. I merely sympathized Jerry for marrying a life-sucker like Holly. She’s not pretty, she’s not likeable she’s not helping out with family finances but certainly racking up the expenses column with her Marc Jacobs shoes although she can’t hold a job for goodness sakes! Throughout the movie I really could not FEEL for Holly, even when her husband died. No, there wasn’t a trace of Poor Holly in me. Is it the story or is it Hillary, I wonder?

Holly appeared needy, demanding, childish, a good-for-nothing. What did she bring into the relationship? What could she offer Jerry? Nothing! Except a load of problems and quarrels from what I can see.

Another point that was disappointing in the movie was the fact that we only saw the hale and hearty side of Jerry. The cheeky side of him when he stripped for Holly, his tender side when he comforted her, his manly side when he sought to truce with her when they quarreled, his responsible side of him when he wanted to ensure his wife have a good time.

But what about the time when he was debilitating away, with the cancer eating away his cells, yet trying to pick up the pen to write his dear wife a letter for the next 12 months? What about the part about them complaining about being poor but he was still able to fully subsidise a trip to Scotland for Holly and two of her friends? Where did he get the money from anywhere? Did he have a secret stash? Wouldn’t all the money be spent treating Jerry before he was a gone case?

These could have milked us for our tears but no, the screen writer and the director decided to totally forego these so that Hillary, the ugly Hillary will have more screen time for me to dislike her even more.

Anyway I shall stop complaining about Hillary/Holly before anyone says that I’m jealous of Holly for having such a fantastic hubby! My hubby is not too bad himself!