Rating:  -
P.S. is no doubt Laura Linney's best work since You Can Count On Me. It may not be as great a movie, but she definitely carried it with her signature realistic performance that I considered to be as good as this years other great female performances including Kim Basinger(The Door In The Floor), Ashely Judd( De-Lovely), Annette Bening(Being Julia), Gena Rowling(The Notebook), Maggie Cheung(Clean), Julie Delpy(Before Sunset), and Laura Dern(We Don't Live Here Anymore). Without Linney, this film would have been like a salad without a dressing.
Linney plays an administration officer(Louise) at a university, and she meets an applicant(F.Scott played by Topher Grace) with the same name and a look-a-like to her high school sweetheart who died in a car accident. It instantly triggered a lot of old memories and she instantly wanted to get personal with him, but he has no idea that was the reason she was so interested in him.
Meanwhile, Louise's ex-husband Peter(Gabrille Bryne) confessed to her that he had a sex addiction and that he had slept with 100's of women and almost 10 men! It was so shocking to her that she instantly broke down into tears. Her long time best friend Missy( Marcia Gay Harden) who also dated her dead ex-boyfriend accidently called and spoke to F.Scott, and wanted to steal him or jeapardize their chance of developing a relationship.
Ever since Louise met F.Scott, she started to unravel and she eventually confessed to him the mystery. He thought she was nuts to think that he's some kind of reincarnation of her ex. Missy decided to drop her intention to be with F.Scott knowing Louise is seriously falling for him. Peter wanted to rebuild his relationship or do step 9 of his program to Louise, but ultimately gets rejected. F.Scott eventually gets persuaded by Louise's real feelings to be together for good.
I didn't find this movie to be so emotionally impacting like You Can Count On Me, but it is tailor-made for Laura Linney. So if you like her, you must not miss this one.
Rating: -
Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Hardin are great in P.S. But Topher Grace is outstanding in his role as the young art student who has a romantic sexual affair with Linney's character.
The story is sad as Linney's character tries to deal with her lonliness and the fact that her ex-husband cheated on her. The story is very real and touching about their marriage falling apart.
The part about Topher Grace's character being some type of reincarnation of the boy they loved in their youth, is alittle weird and hard to follow. I think they could have left all this out and it would have still been an interesting story of women trying to fulfill their lives with a younger man.
The acting in the movie is top-notch and amazingly realistic.
Rating:  -
"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.
|
