Rating:  -
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.
Rating: -
`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.
Rating:  -
First off, I was pleasantly surprised at Topher Grace's acting skills. When the movie was just starting I was thinking to myself, 'this looks good, but couldn't they have cast someone other than him?' Well, I was wrong--he did a great job, maybe "That 70's Show" makes everyone seem annoying & no fault of his own.
Louise is a middle aged woman who just seems sort of lost. It's clear she is desperate to find something worthwhile in her life, something to give it all meaning. Enter a letter with a familiar name from her past.
Who among us that have lost someone hasn't wished for a second chance? I find we often cling to things lost, forgetting what we presently have. In Louise's case what she presently has is really just a form of holding onto something else, her past with her ex husband. She says something to the effect that, 'maybe that's what's wrong with people--everyone just moves on...'
So you think it will be another spin on the May/December romance, but this one was crisp and kept one interested. I love how this film unabashedly showed the difference in the generations, F. Scott's use of slang, sloppy t-shirt and cheap looking bracelets versus Louise's classic dress, flowing hair and poignant questions. With the generational differences I kept expecting him to say something callous and hurtful to her, and I wanted to protect her from it, but instead I watched with wonder as he showed a keen sensitivity to her and said things that are profound, given the image he protrayed. In one scene he told her (paraphrased), 'I woke up this morning and you were 6 inches away from me and I was blinded--your beauty blinded me...' There is more to this kid than he appears to be.
For her it's a mystical chance to re do something in her life unfinished, for him it's just the awe of someone like her being interested in someone like him. It's definately one to watch in the array of mediocre films that keep getting pumped out. I only wish the ending had more closure, so I am going to read the book.
Rating:  -
Laura Linney stars in this strange and wonderful film as Louise an admissions officer at Columbia University, her life seems normal and she is a divorced middle aged woman who has a close friendship with her ex-husband played by Gabriel Burn but it seems like her life might be unfufilled untill she comes across an application for a graduate student named F.Scott (Topher Grace) that catches her attention. When she calls this applicant on the phone she realises that the voice sounds familiar and is immidiately reminded of her first love in highschool, she calls F.Scott and schedules an interview and as soon as he arrives she is both shocked and amazed at the uncanny resemblence he has with her first love and boyfriend who died in a car crash at a young age which is the same age as F.Scott, she wants to rekindle old passions. Also starring Marcia [...] Harden who plays missy her eccentric and snobby friend which I thought was a funny role Missy was the one who stole her boyfriend from her, the film also stars Paul Rudd as her brother who just got out of rehab and is trying to get his life back together although his role was short he was terrific. Laura Linney is of course one of the best and most talented actresses I have ever seen and I will watch any film she stars in thats how good she is, her character Louise was great and she shows how strong and confident this person is despite her persuing a relationship with a person that is almost 15 years younger than she is, her life changes and we feel like she finally finds some happiness in her life, all the other performances were great as well and I couldn't recomend this film highly enough although its not perfect like the scene where Louise confronts her husband after the devastating revalation he tells her about himself, the scene could have been better instead of being slightly boring. Overall this film is a wonderfull romantic drama film that is very different and I highly recomend this.
Rating: -
When I was attending Johnson Middle School on an American Air Force Base in Japan (in the same buildings where they trained Kamikaze pilots during World War II), I had a crush on this one girl named Michelle who pretty much ignored me (except for once when she wanted to make this other guy jealous, not that I could have been used for such purposes at that age). My father retired to New Mexico and I went to high school. One night during my first year somebody called the house and said it was a phone call for me from Japan. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was Michelle calling me, which made absolutely no sense whatsoever if I was thinking with my brain but obviously sprung from a more emotional place. My hopes were immediately dashed and it would be another two years before a girl would finally ask me out on a date.
I mention this story because it allows me to understand the leap of illogic that overwhelms Louise Harrington (Laura Linney) in "p.s.," an Independent film written and directed by Dylan Kidd ("One Wild Night") based on the novel by Helen Schulman. The tagline for the film is "What would you do for a second chance?" Louise is an admissions officer at Columbia and when she sees an application from F. Scott Feinstadt (Topher Grace), she calls him up to come in for an interview. After it is over she runs after him and ends up taking him back to her apartment where she pretty much literally jumps him. It does not matter that she is an admissions officer and he is a candidate for admissions. Nor does it matter that she is 39 and he is 18. All that matters is that his name is Scott Feinstadt and he looks something like the young boy drawn on a napkin that Louise has in her possession.
Eventually we (and F. Scott) learn that Louise considers him to be a dead ringer for her boyfriend who died when she was 17. She insists that F. Scott looks like this boy, sounds like this boy, paints like this boy, and basically makes it clear that the evidence is so obvious and overwhelming that the only reasonable thing to do is treat him like her Scott brought back to life. This Scott likes the sexual part and while being considered a dead guy is bad enough, it is the fact that Louise thinks his art is not his own that really upsets him. If Louisa was not in a vulnerable enough position to begin with, her ex-husband Peter (Gabriel Byrne) has reached Step 9 in his recovery program and shows up to make amends (This is never a good thing in the movies. Well, okay, not never, but the odds are really against you on this thing).
If this remind you of "Birth," another 2004 film, let me assure you that you are not alone. This time the young boy is older, so that there is a sexual dimension to the relationship, but that is not as important as the emotional turmoil that Louise is going through. The biggest difference between "p.s." and "Birth"--and why I rounded up on this one--is that this time when Louise turns to her friend, Missy Goldberg (Marcia Gay Harden) and says that this kid looks like the long dead Scott, her friend readily agrees instead of giving the more obvious rejoinder as to possible insanity. At that point the two women proceed to fight over this Scott, the same way they did over the earlier one two decades earlier. This has its comic moments, but there is also a tragic irony to it and this becomes the best scene in Kidd's film, not only because of the performance by Linney, but because it embracing the absurdity of the situation her character finds the means to let it go.
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