Karry
Best movie of this year hands down!
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
abyoussef
by Dane Youssef "P.S." is one of those rare movies that tells a story which feels too good to be true--the kind that's escapist-fantasy and only seems to happen in movies and in our most desperate dreams.But then again, sometimes we see and here that it does happen in real life. Once in a blue moon. It's every great success story. Like movie-star Lana Turner getting discovered when working in a pharmacy or Muhammad Ali's almost inhumanly-impossible success with his career in the ring, who talked like a professional wrestler."P.S." is a movie like that. It tells a story as sweet as a fairy tale, that maybe could happen in life. Where a woman feels like when she loses someone, she loses her chance in life. But then something else comes along that is so incredible, it feels like the divine hand. Is God giving her a do-over? And not being so subtle about it? Laura Linney continues her streak of must-see movies and Oscar-caliber performances here as Louise, a middle-aged admissions director who's been through a real losing streak throughout her life. She's recently divorced from her husband, a compulsive sex-addict who's diddled anyone who's set toe in his class. Her best friend seduced away her boyfriend in high school and is now married in an upper-middle class suburb to a man she threatens to cheat on if he doesn't fulfill his "husbandly duties." She's living the kind of life every woman wants to in her most cynical, vengeful, self-absorbed fantasies. She's getting older, life's getting harder (and it hasn't been very charmed to begin with). She begins to see all her hopes and dreams fading fast. And things get even more interesting when see has a private one-on-one interview with a potential art student.This guy is just her type. Not only, but… he bares an uncanny resemblance to her late college boyfriend, an art major with a passion that matched hers. This guy doesn't just look--he sounds, acts, behaves and his art is even similar. Louise is in shock.What is this? Coincidence? Incidental? Has she been working herself too hard? Stress? Reincarnation? An escapist-fantasy movie-plot? Whatever it is, Louise is rubbing here eyes while warming up to this guy. Getting to know him… finds herself feeling something…. While trying to keep her feelings at bay. She's a skeptic. She's got one heck a heck of a track record.One of the most refreshing things about the actress Laura Linney is that she's not just another manufactured beauty from off the assembly line. She's not just another actress. She's not "one of a million." She's just so real. She's not movie-star-ish.She doesn't wear designer clothes wherever she goes, live in a six-story mansion of Muhulland Dr, smoke cigarettes from a long black holder and have a private trophy room for all her honors. When she acts, it doesn't feel like acting. You feel you know her. She's a real person.The same hold true for Topher Grace, which explains his success as an actor. He seems so adult, so grown-up for his age. Grace is charismatic and seems smart, his gift and his power on-screen doesn't come from a natural Brando-like acting talent, but his face, his body, his voice, his personality. Somehow, everything he says sounds like he means it. He's so square, so on-the-level. All he has to do is speak to convince you that he's legit. As an actor, Grace has a style all his own which may or may not be intentional. He has an Anti-Brando method. He never changes his appearance or voice at all in his roles, but he has an earnest, open-faced, true-to-life and genuinely human way in every movie he so much as touches. Which explains why Hollywood keeps throwing mountains of scripts his way and why every movie he's in, he's given a nomination for something.This is some of the best acting either Linney or Grace has ever done so far, pure and simple.Gabriel Bryne, one of the finest actors in the world brings his trade-mark debonair and charisma in the role of Peter Harrington, Louise's ex-husband who's nasty habit primarily caused their divorce. There scenes that poke fun and make light of his "f-----g" habit are almost worth the rental price.Which is why he takes home award after award for nearly every movie he does, because something about his whole appearance and personality makes it come across like he's just himself being himself, not an actor.While "P.S." may just come across as a woman's picture (and it may well be), this isn't just a moody, sensitive, overly-emotional "chick-flick" to be seen on a "woman's day." This is a movie about some people who are seriously dealing with the trials of life at a turning point of age.Paul Rudd, who been the key performance in some damn good movies, has basically just a little cameo, but as the estranged brother, he gives us further magnified scope into Louise's little life. He's a reformed junkie with a condescending, sadistic streak towards his big sis.The movie has a deep, human, true-to-life atmosphere all throughout. There's nary a moment that is written or executed in a way that feels contrived. Nothing in "P.S." needs willing suspension of disbelief. Everything feels so beautiful and natural as the falling of the rain.Movies like "Birth and "Return To Me" have tackled this subject before, but here it feels so legitimate. Like "Rocky," this one makes us believe clichés can happen… and make us care.--P.S, Dane Youssef
Elswet
As one in a May/September romance of sorts, I expected to like this one. And I did...but only marginally. Linney's character was not strong enough to pull this one off. Also, I found that this movie thought it was being clever, when in actuality, it was out-thinking itself. It also takes itself quite seriously in its post traumatic stress disorder, shining a search light on nothing, leading the audience to nowhere, and finding its way straight into ambiguity. In five years, this work will not be remembered, and that is not a loss to the cinematic world, believe me.This work was muddled, uneven, and trite.It rates a 4.6/10 from...the Fiend :.
purplesmurfwench
I really enjoyed this movie. I thought it started out well, and that all the characters were well developed, and well acted, except that i didn't see the point of Marcia Gay Harden's character. I felt that she was an unnecessary appendage, as she didn't contribute much to the plot. Also, if her character is generally not very nice to Laura Linney's character, then why are they best friends? Linney's performance was fantastic, but then, isn't she always? I thought that Topher Grace was very good, except i found him slightly unconvincing during the couch sex scene. Regarding that scene, i thought it was excellent. so often in movies you get these terribly shot and acted sex scenes. In this scene, i thought it was realistic, but not gratuitous, and to be honest the scene gave me goosebumps, especially when Grace rubs his hand along Linney's profile. I was slightly disappointed in the ending, as i felt that it left the viewer somewhat hanging. But i would definitely recommend this movie to all art movie lovers. I would be very interested to read the book.
mehunterbtown
OK, my husband and I sighed and turned this movie off maybe halfway through, so I may not be really qualified to review it. Still, that action may speak for itself. I would just like to know: What is it that makes Hollywood think we all want to watch movies about older women making it -- er, having relationships -- with younger men? I guess since American Beauty won its Oscar for a middle-aged man trying to pork his daughter's best friend, movie makers think they can make a go of it with the genders turned around, despite the warnings of Oedipus (or maybe BECAUSE of the warnings of Oedipus, I don't know.) But it failed in That Evening Star. It failed in In Love And War, despite the extreme circumstances and only 6 years age difference. I couldn't buy it between Uma Thurman and Bryan Greenberg in Prime. And now Laura Linney and Topher Grace can't make it work either. It's just, well, how do I put this? . . . Off-putting. Disturbing. Repulsive. Gross. All this despite the so-called "redemption" and the swell of happy music just before credits roll. Such relationships don't have a chance -- not in real life, and not in the movies. I don't care HOW "hot" the woman looks. (And yes, I'm a middle-aged woman.) So come on, Hollywood. Give us a break, and reach somewhere else for your different kicks. This avenue should stay off-limits.
