P.S.
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Movie Reviews of P.S.
Movie Review: Good cast selection in a mediocre movie
Summary: 3 Stars
I read the novel a few months ago, before this film hit theaters, inticed by the hints at reincarnation. I was disappointed in the novel not being what it claimed to be, but somehow, I expected the film to be a vast improvement over the novel. It is, by just a tad, as I really liked the performances by Laura Linney and Topher Grace, but the film is loyal to the novel. People who think that the director just threw subplots out there obviously haven't read the novel. Louise's (Laura Linney) husband Peter (Gabriel Byrne) did have a sex addiction in the novel, and her brother did have a gambling addiction and received money from Peter for a financial scheme. Why it's in the novel is probably to enhance the idea that all the characters have an addiction to something, and Louise is no different. As I said, I liked both performances, yet I didn't really see any chemistry between the two of them...no sense of a real attraction. They looked like they were using each other for selfish goals (he because, why not...no young 20-something male is going to refuse a sexual encounter with an attractive older lady; her to fulfill a long-held fantasy about her high school boyfriend).
Now, about that premise...the film's trailer hinted at a reincarnation story and this film hangs its whole premise on the idea that a 20-year old student named F. Scott Feinstadt looks exactly like Scott Feinstadt, who died twenty years ago. Not only do they share the same name and the same look, but both were budding artists whom Louise and her best friend Missy (played by Marcia Gay Harden) were in love with. The film, just like the novel, never explains the coincidences or offer any clue as to what it could mean. That might be the intention of the writer/director...but it cheapens the film and novel with laziness by remaining ambiguous. Don't sell something as something else ("a reincarnation movie that doesn't explore reincarnation"). I'm personally fascinated by reincarnation and believe in it, and because there are so few films that cover the topic in a serious way, there is a unique market out there that would be hungry for films that explored the topic in a serious way. This film is not it. Thus, my disappointment overall.
After hearing the director's commentary with a second viewing of the film, I did get to learn more about the meaning of the film and it makes a little bit more sense. The message of it is good (about how we put expectations on others who remind us of someone else, and when the person reveals himself to be someone other than our fantasy image, how that pushes them away from having a real relationship with the person), but its not the message I was sold on (which was a reincarnation story). Because of the deceptive advertising, I'm glad this film bombed in theaters. Since its obviously not about reincarnation, it could easily have been about cloning, which would have made a better film premise.
The only thing this film has going for it are the performances by Laura Linney and Topher Grace; and its interesting to watch the uncomfortable love scene between the two of them that occurs early on in the film. Both actors are good in their own right, but together, there's no sense of real chemistry. Its nothing more than awkward from the get-go. I gave the novel two stars, and this film gets three stars because of the actors...but is this film worth owning or watching more than twice? No. Hopefully a more serious film about reincarnation will be made some day. This one (and "Birth") are not that story. And if any Hollywood types are reading this...don't sell a film on false pretenses/premises. If its not about reincarnation, then don't present it as such. Truth in advertising applies to film as well as products.
Movie Review: Fate or Delusion?: A Film with Romance, and Intelligence Too
Summary: 3 Stars
`P.S.' is a sweet tale of romance, but the initial setting of the story is as plausible as that of `Ghost.' Or less, maybe, for ghost may come to you, but no admissions officer working for university would do the same thing as Louise of this film, played by ever-reliable Laura Linney. But you MUST believe that part, and only then you will be attracted to the romantic relations depicted in this little charming film.
Laura Linney plays Louise, a divorced Columbia University School of Fine Arts admissions officer. In the opening chapter you will see the way her life is going on. It is routine, you can sense it in her conversation with her ex-husband (Gabriel Byrne). If you are not sure she is unfulfilled emotionally, it is obvious that Louise, reaching 40, does not look like a heroine of romance.
But all these things change when Louise happens to notice that one of the applicants' letters has the same name on it as her ex-boyfriend - it was 20 years ago -- and guess what she does next. Louise calls F. Scott (that's the name of the applicant), asks him to come over to her office at University, and arranges to interview him without telling anyone else about it.
F. Scott (Topher Grace) shows up, and their romance begins. (I don't write how, but you must see it for yourself). As you know, there are interesting aspects about their romance, like, which of them seizes the initiative of their relations, and Dylan Kidd tactfully suggests the power game played by them in such scenes as the one in which Louise teaches F. Scott how to tie his necktie. The story is told from the viewpoint of Louise, but it is easy to imagine how F. Scott, clearly uncomfortable at first, would feel before the admission officer who is coming onto him, displaying her cleavage in her office.
`P.S.' is clever in showing these details, and the supporting characters are also largely interesting (and very eccentric). Marcia Gay Harden nearly steals the show, but it is Laura Linney and Topher Grace who is the real star of the film, making it very endearing and likable..
Unfortunately, however, `P.S.' never makes us forget that the premise is too unorthodox, demanding too much from us. You may call it philosophical, metaphorical, or psychological, but one scene which happens earlier in the story is simply embarrassing not because its subject matter but because it is totally impossible in more than one way.
I liked the acting from the leads, and the May-December romance between them. Probably you will too, but that's after you pretend that you didn't see some part of the film.
Movie Review: A romantic movie with a brain
Summary: 3 Stars
"P.S." is that rarest of movies -- the romantic movie that ponders as it loves. Not just "what would it be like if you could have your first love again?", but "what mistakes have you made in love?" It treads on risky turf, but for the sake of pondering love and loss rather than for shock effect -- and that makes it worth watching, despite the awkward scripting.
Louise Harrington (Laura Linney) is a divorced woman in her late thirties, the director of admissions at Columbia. Her only friend is her ex-husband Peter (Gabriel Byrne), and her life is steady but very boring. All that changes in an instant when she sees a familiar name: F. Scott Feinstadt. That was the name of her high school boyfriend, an art student who was stolen away from her and tragically killed in a car crash. Same birthday too.
Louise calls in the young man (Topher Grace), and is stunned to see that he's also an artist, who even looks like her dead boyfriend. She decides that their meeting is fate, or that she is being given a second chance at her old love, and he's strangely drawn to this quiet, sad woman. The two fall into a passionate, awkward affair, that leads to Louise reexamining her life and her loves.
It sounds like a middle-aged woman's fantasy. But it's actually more of a personal journey -- Louise is called on to deal with the realities of her past, and to reasses her life in every way. It's a romance between a young man and older woman, yes, but it's not a Mrs. Robinson-style fantasy. It's only a part of Louise's problems and changes.
The scripting is not as good as the idea, however -- director Dylan Kidd doesn't explore the fate-related questions it brings up, like the strange similarities between the dead Scott and the new one. And he throws random curve balls (like Peter's sex addiction). And why have Louise seduce Scott within an hour of meeting him? Despite these weird occurrances, Kidd does what he does best -- outstanding dialogue that is frank and straightforward, and gives the characters new dimensions.
What really makes this movie shine is Laura Linney, an excellent actress only just starting to be recognized for her talents. She makes Louise warm, sad, passionate and locked in the past -- and it all works. Byrne is solid Topher Grace gives an endearing performance as Louise's boytoy, but isn't given much more to do.
Dylan Kidd's sophomore movie "P.S." hits a bit of a slump, but not a total one. Despite some awkward scenes, the movie is poignant and funny, and the endearing lead Linney overcomes a somewhat flat plot.
Movie Review: A likeable romance, maybe better than 3 stars
Summary: 3 Stars
Laura Linney, Topher Grace, Gabriel Byrne, and Marcia Gay Harden star in "p.s.", a romantic soap opera that starts slowly but gets you involved about a half-hour in with its intermingled storyline and satsifying two-dimensional characterizations by the lead characters.
Linney -- a great actress with a tendency to eschew glamour roles for more earthbound and realisitc portrayals -- is admissions director for an art program at Columbia University. She receives an application from Grace, who has the same name and appearance as an artist-boyfriend from her youth, a boyfriend she shared with best friend Hayden. Linney's ex-husband and still friend, Byrne, adds fuel to this volatile mixture when he admits he was a sex addict during their marriage and made love to hundreds of women "and men, too."
After Linney begins an affair with Grace -- her seeming boyfriend raised from the dead -- she has a great line after her admission of her ex's failures during their marriage. "He cheated on you?" Grace asks; "He probably bleeped you at some point," Linney responds...only she didn't say bleeped.
This movie is slow getting under way but interesting and fun in the final hour. Its pathos is genuine and reminiscent of the effect Linney created in her made-for-cable film "Wild Iris" which I think is her best work. I very much like that an actress of Linney's stature (an Academy award winner for her role in "Kinsey") will take on roles that are more deomcratic to audiences, who can in turn connect with her character and respond to even the most foolish elements of the storyboard.
Buy, rent or borrow this flick if you enjoy romance, soap opera, or otherwise like effective socialization in cinema. While nothing like this ever happened in my life this movie reminded me of a many of the feelings I had while an undergraduate; it might do the same for you.
Movie Review: charming but half-made
Summary: 3 Stars
On paper, Kidd's earlier film Roger Dodger, about a snide Lothario (played to Oscar quality by Campbell Scott) and his attempts to "mentor" his nephew, seems the lesser of P.S., about an August/ April romance between an admissions officer at a Columbia art department and a young applicant who stuns her by looking like an old departed boyfriend. But Roger Dodger feels tight, finished, and driven by a wild logic of its own, while P.S. is riddled with incompletenesses. Laura Linney is such a fine and affecting actress that she could convince me she had erotic chemistry with a bookcase, but despite her talents, the alleged electricity between her character and her young paramour in P.S., played by Topher Grace, required frequent suspensions of my disbelief. Grace here has such a hard time leaving his arch, "That 70s Show" schtick behind that he plays this film as though it were a bizarre dream sequence from his TV program. He often looks impatient and half-in-character, as if he expects Laura Propane, his redheaded gal pal from the TV show, to rustle him awake so he can say, "That was the weirdest dream" and proceed in the comfortable universe of avocado and harvest gold situation comedy. Also, the script for this film is half-baked. Many oddities of character and plot, in addition to abrupt and mechanical statements of intentions by characters throughout the film, suggest an outline rather than a finished screenplay. Nonetheless, Linney gives a beautiful performance and there are still many things to like along this film's awkward way.