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Following a failed marriage, thirty-nine year old Louis is
languishing in the backwaters of her life, working as an admissions
officer for a major university. Condemned to having a limited
social circle, which consists of her ex-husband and her bitchy
friend from school, Louis's life is slowly sinking underneath
the weight of its own ennui. Things change when she gets an
application from a student who bears the same name as a dead
lost love, a love that has become the focus of all her dissatisfaction
with life. Intrigued, she contacts the student only to discover
that not only does he have the same name but he looks and
acts exactly like him. With Louis given a second chance at
happiness, can she resist starting a relationship with this
supposed reincarnation...?
P.S.
was directed by Dylan Kidd from his own adaptation of
the original novel by Helen Schulman. The film was nominated
for five awards and Topher Grace won the NBR award for best
breakthrough performance by a new actor and Laura Linney won
best actress at the Mar del Plata Film Festival.
The
film poses two intertwined questions. Would you, if you could,
revisit a long lost love and if you did would it be the same?
It doesn't take Einstein to figure out that most of us would
feel drawn to such a proposition, but the cold light of day
just reminds you why it didn't work out the first time. Linney,
as Louis, and Topher Grace, as F. Scott, do their respective
roles justice and their performances make you genuinely curious
as to where this odd relationship is heading. The liaison
with Scott sets off an explosion of change in her life and
although the film ends on a hopeful note, it won't be the
one that you will be expecting.
The
film has a surprisingly strong supporting cast with Gabriel
Byrne playing the dependant ex-husband and Marcia Gay Harder
as Louis's bitchy best friend Missy Goldberg.
Although
P.S. is an unapologetically romantic film, it avoids
plumping the worse depths of mawkish, with most scenes being
played as realistically as is possible, given the premise.
I have to tip my hat to my other half who reckoned that the
initial sex scene was one of the most realistic she had seen.
It is not portrayed as elegant, or well staged, but fumbling
and awkward (not sure what that says about my personal life
and to be truthful I'm not sure I want to know). There
is a very clever role reversal with Louis, having waited so
long for F. Scott to return from the dead, metamorphosing
into a sexual predator. He is the one who is naked while she
keeps most of her clothes on and it is Louis who initialises
the liaison, but is more than a little insistent that she
reaches fruition even though Scott has already finished. It
is not until the post coital pause that she revert back into
her more common, bashful, persona.
There
are some reasonable extras on the DVD, especially the feature
length commentary with the director and the director of photography.
Apart from that you get the theatrical trailer and promo trailers
for other films. Audio comes in all three flavours, stereo,
5.1 and DTS. But to be honest this is an introspective character
piece which won't set your rear speakers on fire, so anything
above stereo is nice but not necessary.
We took a quick vote in the house and this film is defiantly
a chick flick. Now there's nothing wrong with that, and it's
not to say that it cannot be enjoyed by men, but like Bridget
Jones Diaries it's told very much from the female perspective.
So,
a good if not great film. If you're male buy it for your partner
and if you're female, this film will bring back thoughts of
lost loves and missed opportunities.
Charles
Packer
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