PS I Love You

Great story, awful execution.

Watching this movie is a disjointed experience. I didn't choose the DVD (and probably never would choose it, if left to my own devices) yet once it actually got started I have to say I both loved and hated it in equal measure. I loved the story (because it is original, sweet and very romantic) and I hated pretty much everything on screen: the cast, the accents, the lack of chemistry.

Hilary Swank is married to Gerard Butler. By the time the opening credits have finished he has died and left her alone. Except, in a novel twist, he has found a way to stay with her. For a time. He's written her a series of letters, which will be delivered over the course of a year and - in these - he will help her to get over him and move on with her life. In the year that follows, we see her grieve, meet other men, spend time with her friends and - eventually - travel back to Ireland to spend time with her husband's family. The movie starts with a twist, runs for two predictable hours and ends with another little twist.

So, in terms of script it is very satisfying. However, the casting is dreadful. Right across the board there is not person in this who is suited to their role. And many of them, very talented performers though they are, come off looking very bad indeed. Swank has chemistry with nobody else in the movie. This means that you don't believe in the original romance, you don't believe that she and her friends like one another and you have no interest in either of the new men she meets.

Then there are the Irish accents: all of them are dreadful and no two of them sound alike. Quite an achievement when you stop to think about it.

What this film needs, more than anything else, is to be refilmed with a totally new cast (Sandra Bullock and some sexy Irish guy, preferably me!). Grade: C+

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