Calling all tissues

He made us swoon with his dreamy voice in Phantom and put us on the edge of our seat in 300. Now, Gerard Butler makes us cry in P.S. I Love You and he's done it all with that wonderfully smokey, Scottish accent. But we have some lovers and haters here. Click on "Read more!" to read student reviews of P.S. I Love You and decide for yourself if the movie is worth a look. Also check out the film's website linked to the headline. P.S. I Love You on DVD May 6.

P.S. I Love You: Thumbs Down
Pure Suffering. That’s what the “P.S.” in the romantic film P.S. I Love You stands for. Or maybe it’s Painful Sobbing – one’s facial muscles tend to ache after two hours of crying, you know. In fact, writer/director Richard LaGravenese hardly gives the audience enough time between sniffles to decide whether the movie, adapted from Cecilia Ahern’s 2005 bestselling novel, is decent or dreadful. Moviegoers are too busy searching for extra Kleenex.

The film opens with an oddly cast Hilary Swank, who we come to know as Holly Kennedy, a young real estate agent with a penchant for eBay-purchased designer fashion. Holly, stalking up her apartment stairs with a nasty scowl, has been angered into silence by her gorgeous Irish husband, Gerry (Gerard Butler). The scene and its placement feel off – largely because the “fight” that ensues is unrealistic and the dialogue awkward – but more so because it abruptly ends, the opening credits roll and we are then thrust into the scene of Gerry’s death.

Gerry, in an odd yet charming Irish fashion, knows a brain tumor will take his life and thus does some “planning ahead” to help his beloved wife cope. The movie follows Holly as she receives 10 letters from her deceased husband in various forms, including a 30th birthday cake, a cherished leather jacket and a trip to Ireland. It is his hope that these “lessons” will help Holly in her time of grief and eventually, they will teach her how to move on with life.

However, with the arrival of each letter, it seems like Holly mourns all over again, wondering what Gerry is trying to tell her. It is heart wrenching and truly pitiful to see her anxiously await and come to depend on these correspondences with a dead man. Even her mom, Patricia (Kathy Bates), cannot get through to Holly, an inconsolable widow stuck in her takeout-strewn apartment.

What’s even more disturbing, however, is watching Swank take on the role of a sappy, romantic leading lady. The focus on Swank’s slender figure and couture costumes is distracting only until one remembers her Oscar-winning roles in 1999’s Boys Don’t Cry and 2004’s Million Dollar Baby. Then the realization hits: She’s so much better than this emotional disaster of a character!

Brighter, tissue-free moments – and there are certainly not enough – are pleasantly provided by Holly’s two best friends: the fierce, sassy Sharon (Gina Gershon), and the promiscuous, hilarious Denise (Lisa Kudrow). Kudrow shines as the film’s comedic relief, although it’s hard not to feel guilty for laughing in the face of such a tragic story line. She makes the somber opening scene of Gerry’s memorial a littler lighter as she searches the crowd for potential spouses. Denise’s line of questioning goes something like, “Are you single? Are you gay? Are you working?” The deadpan Kudrow is easily the film’s standout actor.

But is the film a comedy, or is it a drama? It feels more like a joyless roller coaster of a love story with no end in sight. LaGravenese dangles his objective in our face, but he never reveals it, even as the movie comes to a close. His intentions are about as blurry as the vision of the tear-filled audience – and by the time those tears dry, you can’t remember if the film was any good in the first place. --Emily Yocco

P.S. I Love You: Thumbs Up
It starts off with a typical argument between man and wife – the man has no idea what he’s done to get her so riled up, and the woman can’t believe he doesn’t realize just how much he’s messed up. After several minutes of yelling, shoe-throwing and slamming doors, the two run into each other’s arms and passionately forgive each other.

But this is where Richard LaGravenese’s film P.S. I Love You stops looking like every other romantic comedy on the market and dons a more quirky, albeit somber, look for this movie genre.

Following the fight between married couple Holly (Hilary Swank) and Gerry (Gerard Butler), we find ourselves watching Holly and her friends mourn the sudden loss of her hunky Irish husband. But never fear, ladies – Gerry’s chiseled mug isn’t gone for good. It turns out he wrote a series of letters before he died that start coming to Holly in different ways, and his voice (and face) come back in different parts of the film to help her deal with her grief.

“But I don’t have a plan, Gerry,” Holly laments aloud in her apartment a few days after the funeral.

“That’s alright, love,” she imagines him saying. “Your plans never work out anyway.”

So she awaits his posthumous letters with the help of relationship-starved Denise (Lisa Kudrow) and perpetually-awkward Daniel (Harry Connick Jr.), two of her more compelling friends in the film. Harry Connick Jr. plays Holly’s uncomfortably honest friend so well you almost wonder if he’s like that in real life. And Lisa Kudrow nails Denise’s lines about her “vulgar, cheap appreciation” for the opposite sex, adding an extra dose of humor to a film with an otherwise tearful premise.

Now to some, the film’s storyline may seem morbid – a widow receiving letters from her dead husband? That’s unrealistic and downright morose, they might say. But part of the appeal of the movies is seeing something you wouldn’t normally see in real life. It’s this idea that P.S. I Love You works with to attract its romantic comedy-loving audience, and it succeeds. Widows don’t usually have husbands who can plan so meticulously in advance of their passing, but it’s nice to see those letters cushion the blow for Holly. Be prepared to go through an entire box of tissues by the time you reach the end.

Indeed, people will walk out of this film and remember it because it’s a romantic comedy that deals with how the living move on after losing loved ones in a really interesting way. Gerry leaves his wife here, but not without something to help her learn to deal with her loss. Grief is an unfortunate part of life and here we have a movie dealing with that subject in a lighthearted way, which makes it stand out in comparison to the typical boy dates girl / boy loses girl / boy gets girl back romantic comedy that’s been made over and over again.

Not to say this movie doesn’t have its share of tear-jerking, predictable moments (the scene with Holly singing “The Man That Got Away” in her apartment days after Gerry’s death satisfies this necessity). But it’s nice to watch a film addressing subject matter everyone can relate to. --Claire Miller

P.S.: Gerard Butler, if you’re reading this, I love you.