P.S. I Love You

Troy and I watched this movie the other night. I had read the book awhile ago, and really loved it, so I kind of thought that the movie wouldn't be as good, and I was kinda right. If I don't really think about the movie at all, and just think of it as another romantic comedy, it was a pretty good movie. But I tend to think about things, and the more I do, the more I think I didn't care for this movie.

For one thing, I really like Harry Connick Jr. I thought he was excellent in Hope Floats, and he is not unattractive. Except in P.S. I Love You. He was horrible. His character was annoying, with very few redeeming qualities, and I think they kind of expected us to root for him and Holly (the female lead) to get together.

But I wasn't rooting for that. At all. In fact, I don't know what I was rooting for. It's been awhile since I read the book, so I guess I was rooting for the likeable guy that I vaguely remembered from the book. But that likeable guy wasn't in this movie. Instead we got unlikeable guy, so my brain didn't know what to do.

Which brings me to Hillary Swank as Holly. It just didn't work for me. The person playing this character needed to be a very expressive person, who is able to show a lot of emotion, and I didn't get that out of Hillary Swank. Not even a little bit. She's very pretty, and I have no doubt that she is a good actress, just not right for the part.

You see here in this picture, she looks kind of sad. This is about the extent of her sad facial expressions. Maybe I'm not remembering everything. It has been a couple of days since I've watched the movie, but I pretty much think I'm right here. And then we have the part where she takes a trip to Ireland, and sleeps with some guy. Some guy she just met. It just doesn't work with the story. Maybe the movie version of the story. But not the book version, which was, you know, actually good.

And then there was her mother. Her bitter, angry mother, who basically kept telling her to just get over it. Because at least she (the daughter) had a husband who didn't WANT to leave her. Because, you see, the mother's husband had left her. So every time she was in a scene, it was kind of all about her. Forget that her daughter's husband had just died. Her own husband had left her a long time ago, and that's what really mattered.

But then I think, when I was watching the movie I didn't really feel like it was that bad. I think that's mostly because I expected that something was going to happen. That it was going to get better, but then it never did. And then certain things did happen in the movie, and I thought "That's it? That's where you're trying to go with this whole thing?" And then I turn off my brain, and stop thinking about it, and I think the movie wasn't that bad again.