Ken & Linda @ the movies

P.S. I Love You

Well Linda and I have started the new year off with a great day. We slept in, well I did I think Linda was up at the crack of dawn, and then watched the annual Rose Parade with a good cup of hot chocolate. We weren't quite sure what to do with the rest of the day and discussed various options including just vegging out on the couch and watching television.

We haven't been to the movies in months and despite the fact that the weather prognosticators were calling for snow and high winds we decided to take in a new movie. So we headed up to Pittsburgh Mills and the Galleria Theaters to see "P.S. I Love You".

The Internet Movie Database categorizes this film as romantic /comedy / drama but I feel it is a pure romance story. It is about a young couple that fall in love, get married and pursue their hopes and dreams together. Like most couples their life is far from perfect but as the husband points out in an early on in the movie that if his beloved was looking for perfection that she should have married into another species.

You don't get very far into the film until you realize that you have now jumped slightly ahead in time and that you are at a gathering to celebrate a wake for the husband. What remains of the movie tells their story in flash backs and how knowing that he was going to die how he planned to help her though the time of grief and to move on with her life. There are funny moments in the film especially in some of the flash back scenes and more than a few dramatic moments that I consider not written as well as they could have been but still good none the less.

The movie stars Hillary Swank probably best known for her Oscar winning role in "Million Dollar Baby", Kathy Bates and actress of great talent and Lia Kudrow who has transitioned well from the small screen to the large. Gerald Butler plays her husband and while I have never heard of him if his performance is any indication of his abilities I think you will be seeing more of him in the future. Jeffery Dean Morgan and Harry Connick Jr make up the other know names in the cast and turn in good performances. Regular watchers of the ABC television series "Grays Anatomy" will recognize Jeffery Dean Morgan as the character Denny who died affecting all of the shows other characters last season.

The movie is filmed on location in New York City and Ireland with the photography being excellent. I have thought for a long time that if I were going to visit anywhere outside of the United States that Ireland would be one of my first picks and this movie doesn't do anything to dissuade those thoughts. I won't tell you how the movie ends but I will tell you that it will warm your heart and make you appreciate the love of your life even more. If you are taking your wife or girlfriend to this picture I suggest that you keep some Kleenex handy to slip in her hand if needed.

On a scaler of one to ten I give "P. S. I Love You" six acorns. I would have rated it higher but I felt that the writing needed to be better and that Harry Connick Jr's talents were poorly used as a result of it. There is also a full length nude scene of the back of Jeffery Dean Morgan that really didn't need to be there to hold up the plot. At least that is the way I saw it, those of the other gender may disagree. You want to be in your seat when the lights go down as a good deal of the plot unfolds before the title and opening credits start to appear on the screen. Linda and I both agreed that this one was well worth the price of admission.