Wednesday, January 16, 2008

"P.S. I Love You" IS a chick-flick

By Katie Libecco

The only 60-second increments of "P.S. I Love You" when I wasn't crying were filled with incredibly awkward flirtatiousness.

That, by definition, makes it a chick-flick.

And just to drill the idea home, they have girly-girl superstar Lisa Kudrow playing an outspoken feminist, Denise.

The movie tells the story of a young widow and her late husband's last efforts to make her loss easier, through letters helping her deal with life without him. The actors (Hillary Swank, Gerard Butler, Kudrow, Kathy Bates, Harry Connick Jr. ) are amazingly able to get through the obsessively sentimental and mostly morbid script with serious, and actually pretty good, performances.

Above all else, "P.S. I Love You" confirmed my idea that Swank, who plays widow Holly Kennedy in this film, has two magical powers. The first is to miraculously transform from dude-like to sex siren without warning or notice, and two, to make women cry like their entire families died in every role she plays.

Now, that's not to say there's no upbeat points in this film. Built, naked Irish men is not something I take for granted. In fact, the other women in the theater kept yelling at their appearance and by the movie's end, had convinced each other to go to O'Donold's to continue the Irish spirit.

Unfortunately, I've never seen Connick behind the bar there. Many critics nearly attacked Connick for being one of the few characters who didn't sing in the movie. But his portrayal of awkward almost-love interest Daniel Connelly was another great showcase of his talent away from the piano.

Interestingly, the leading Irishman, Gerry Kennedy, is played by Butler, originally of Scotland. Last I checked, mixing up Irishmen and Scotsmen is always nearly a fatal mistake. Butler's singing is remarkably different than his performance as the title character in "Phantom of the Opera." By that, I mostly mean it's really not any good. But it's quirky and fitting for the role.

One of the best performances of the film, as expected, was Bates as Patricia, Holly Kennedy's mother. The part is unusually complex and she handles it beautifully. On-screen, Bates and Swank master the intricacies of a mother-daughter relationship with a rare grace.

Where "P.S. I Love You" fails is that like most other chick-flicks, it's totally based on blowing the modern fairy tale notion completely out of proportion.

One very important note about "P.S. I Love You" — it has simply one of the best soundtracks in recent years. They have the standard Irish-movie-soundtrack inclusion of Flogging Molly ("If I Ever Leave This World Alive,") but also includes some good tunes by The Pougies, NeedToBreathe, Chuck Prophet, Toby Lightman and Nellie McKay. McKay also doubles as the most precious little sister to appear in any film.

So here's my suggestion: skip the chick-flick, and play the soundtrack for your girlfriend. Same results delivered.