PS - YOU MAY NOT LOVE THIS

PRE-AMBLE
It's strange how we humans deal with death. In film terms, we particularly hate the idea of death bringing any finality to young romance. 'Ghost' is the archetypal example though more recent examples include the irreverant rom-com 'Over her dead body' and the romantic weepy, 'P.S. I love you'.

'P.S. I love You' was almost gauranteed a fairly warm response. After all, it is a relatively faithful adaptation of Irish writer (and Irish PM's daughter) Cecelia Ahern's first novel, which was on the book bestsellers list for what seemed an eternity.

SO WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
Adapted by writer-director Richard LaGravenese, and starring double Oscar-winning Hilary Swank (who'd previously worked with LaGravenese on 'FreedomWriters' in 2006), 'P.S. I Love You' is a about a young Estate Agent (Holly Kennedy) who has to come to terms with the completely unexpected death of her young husband.

The movie kicks off with the two of them (the husband an Irish Limo driver) arguing in their cramped New York apartment about starting a family. In common with most young couples, finances seem to be the biggest barrier to this next step in their relationship. But it's clear that, despite life throwing in the usual mix of hurdles and problems that the two are definitely and absolutely in love.



A few moments after the row, after Holly complains that she feels that "…our life is never going to start", the film cuts to the husband's wake. And all this before the opening credits!

Husband Gerry has died of what seems to be a completely unexpected brain tumour, leaving Holly all alone apart from a few close friends, including Sharon and Denise, who try to get her through the first few hours and days of her traumatic loss. That is until letters and notes from her now deceased husband start to turn up with little nuggets of practical advice to help her move on and start living life again. The first of these suggests that she throws out his old clothes as well as suggesting that she takes a trip to Ireland to see his parents to share their loss. Thanks to the continuing 'husband's voice reading letters' thing, Gerard Butler doesn't completely disappear after the opening credits!



There are other potential suitors on the way (Harry Connick Jr, as a barman and husband's friend William (Dean Morgan) who she meets in Ireland, but she cannot commit to either. In the meantime, life rolls ever on and Sharon has a baby, Denise gets married, and it dawns on Holly that she too needs to move on.

Naturally there's a twist in the tale with regard to the letter-sending though, as it's one of the most enjoyable twists in the whole movie, I really shouldn't go spoiling that here.

PICTURE
As you would expect, this is a very fine transfer of a recent movie so absolutely no traces of wear and tear and the compression and conversion to MPEG2 all looks nicely done with no signs of artefacting, and with good solid blacks, colour saturation and detail. It held up nicely on my 42" LCD at any rate - and many DVD's don't.



SOUND
A good full soundscape here with a reasonable, if slightly predictable score. All dialogue was clear and the overall balance was excellent; I set the levels at the start of the movie and didn't need to pump the volume up and down at any point throughout which is something of a novelty these days.



EXTRA FEATURES

A few odds and ends, but nothing very exciting or particularly illuminating.

CONVERSATIONS: Fans of Cecelia Ahern will enjoy the interview with the author, looking fairly pleased about all the attention her first novel got - and possibly all the filthy lucre that has arrived as a consequence. Rather than grumble at the simplification of her life's work into a frothy 90 minute weepy, she plays the game and pretends she loved every moment. Having written the novel at 21 a small, cynical part of me wonders if any publisher would have read it had she not been the daughter of the Irish PM. The featurette soon drifts into a few additional talking heads (including Director LaGravenese) who discuss how it was adapted for screen, though no one ever mentions the American rose-tinted view of Ireland portrayed in the movie. The whole thing has a really irritating 'travelogue' style acoustic guitar underscore.



JAMES BLUNT MUSIC VIDEO: 'SAME MISTAKE': And what a mistake this is to be sure. The high-pitched sheep bleater, who had the good sense to have a stage name in cockney rhyming slang to save anyone else the trouble, delivers another saccharine sweet abomination of a tune. Oh, alright then, if you like him you may like this, though you've probably guessed that it does nothing for me.

THE NAME OF THE GAME IS SNAPS: This is an absolutely toe-curling, incredibly unfunny 'extra' that really shouldn't have made the final retail disc. Someone somewhere should have had the gumption or courage to advise LaGravenese (who appears in this spoof send up of quiz show himself as 'Dr. Richard LaGravenese') to pull it. Ouch!

ADDITIONAL SCENES: But not quite good enough to make the final cut. The first of these, where Holly watches a show with her mother and friends, reveals a high quality of acting during this one long tracking sequence that was a little unexpected. Devoid of effects, music or editing, you get to see the ensemble deliver a very funny sequence in top form.

SO WAS IT ANY GOOD?
The movie is all a bit serious (bar the stereotypical jolly Irish larks) and the only real humour here comes from Kudrow who is something of a man-eater. But on balance it's less a rom-com and more rom-glum than anything. Not depressing perhaps, but certainly no barrel of laughs either. I guess what you might term a 'weepy'.
All in all - it's a nicely performed piece, gently lolloping on towards its predictable end-point. It's not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not a bad one either. However, with so much publicity and advertising thrown at the movie to ensure its place in the top 5 DVD's currently, I can't help thinking that most buyers will be left with the feeling that it has sorely underdelivered. It's probably a 'safe bet' for renting though is hardly going to inspire repeated views as a purchase.