By Josh Moss
josh@louisville.com
What’s up with Hilary Swank? None of her recent performances has come close to equaling the powerful, Oscar-winning blow she delivered as boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in 2005’s Million Dollar Baby. Frankly, movies such as The Black Dahlia and The Reaping were duds that no actor could have saved. And though she was good as a high school teacher in Freedom Writers earlier this year, it was not a portrayal that stuck with you.
Unfortunately P.S. I Love You doesn’t quench the drought. She’s fine playing a widow in this sobfest — which opens Dec. 21 — but she can’t sink her big, white chompers into a script that too often travels that all-too-predictable, schmaltz-covered road.
From Richard LaGavenese, who also directed Swank in Freedom Writers, P.S. I Love You is based on Cecelia Ahem’s 2004 novel of the same name. Swank stars as Holly Kennedy, a 29-year-old real estate agent who complains to her Irish, guitar-playing husband named Gerry (Gerard Butler in a role that slightly differs from his turn as King Leonidas in 300) about “buying bigger apartments and having babies.” No matter how heated the bickering gets — we’re going to say lukewarm at best — it’s nothing that some passionate sex can’t cure.
Holly married Gerry when she was 19, despite skepticism from her mother (Kathy Bates, who you can also see in Fred Claus this holiday season) and his parents. It didn’t matter what others said because the young lovers had to be together. Which makes it that much harder when a brain tumor takes Gerry’s life. His funeral — held at the pub Holly’s mom owns — shows what kind of guy he was because those in attendance take shots of Jameson and set the empty glasses on his urn, which Holly made.
For weeks after the service Holly is in denial. She watches black-and-white films. Her apartment is cluttered with empty pizza boxes and Chinese
food cartons. She calls Gerry’s cell phone over and over just to hear his voicemail. But on her 30th birthday, her family and friends arrive with a cake and a tape recorder. Nobody is sure how, but when Holly plays the recording, it’s — gasp! — Gerry wishing her a happy birthday and telling her he’s going to be sending letters in the future. (Of course, he ends every message with, “P.S. I love you.”)
The letters come over the course of the next year and s/files/storyimages/her and her best friends (played by Lisa Kudrow and Gina Gershon) to a gay club, to Gerry’s hometown in Ireland and to a karaoke bar that you’ll only find in the movies. The goal is to help Holly take the next step in her life by remembering the past and finding a new love, even if that thing doesn't take the form of a cute bartender played by Harry Connick Jr. We've seen plenty of journeys like this before.
Some scenes — like the opening argument between Holly and Gerry, the flashback to the afternoon they met or the heartwarming speech her mother gives — are strong, but they get lost in the mix. For some reason, Holly puking in a bar’s storage closet after a night of heavy drinking doesn’t provide the same emotional impact.
It’s unfortunate because a stronger script would have utilized Swank’s talents throughout. Instead, by the time she’s ready to move on, so are we.
