Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A romantic movie with a brain, October 15, 2004
"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.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Believable reincarnated fantasy lover story, March 13, 2005
This was a wonderful, subtle film about love, in its many different forms. Love in a failed marriage, high school crushes, the idea of a fantasy lover reincarnated, and the expectations of love placed upon the fantasy lover.
Topher Grace was outstanding. There wasn't the barest hint of his character from That 70s show, which is refreshing, because in almost every Ashton Kutcher film there are plenty of hints. I always thought that Grace would be the better actor of the two, and I think we're starting to see that.
Laura Linney turned in a wonderful performance as always. She's as reliable as a brownstone. I've never once seen an imperfection in any of her performances. Any scene in which she evokes emotions are perfectly done.
One can't help but wonder how one would react in Louise's (Linney) situation, and the film did a very good job of sharing her reaction with us, so that we shared it with her. Her immediate attraction to Fran (Grace), and her immediate and passionate desire for sexual relations was compulsive. I found myself feeling sorry for, knowing that she wasn't having sex with him; rather, she was having sex with the F. Scott she loved from high school. It seems that she eventually came to love Fran for who he was, although the age difference was significant and didn't seem to be addressed at all. I would have liked to understand Fran's attraction to older women a little better. I certainly understand that very often younger men or women are attracted to older women or men (or the reverse), but usually each situation is unique, so to see what Fran's unique attraction was would have been interesting and very telling about who he is.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting to like this film. The concept of reincarnated love is a territory that's been explored extensively (recently uncomfortably so in Birth, starring Nicole Kidman). I only rented the film to see if my estimations regarding Topher Grace were correct. Not only did I find out that they were, but I also enjoyed the film immensely. It was touching, intelligent, thought provoking, and layered. For a film marketed as a drama/comedy, that's fairly unusual - and refreshing.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What would you do for a second chance?., May 25, 2006
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.
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