P.S. I Love YouA middling effort for Hilary Swank  December 19,
2007 2:17:09 PM
Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler
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From misty-eyed to crumple-faced, Hilary Swank weeps with the best in her second consecutive middling effort for director Richard LaGravenese (Freedom Writers). Tears aside, she’s stiff and offputting as Holly, a young widow mourning the charismatic Gerry (Scottish actor Gerard Butler, all twinkly in shamrock boxer shorts because he’s playing an Irish guy). Imp that he is, Gerry has arranged to send Holly 10 letters, post-mortem, to ease her grief — and her bitchy streak. Gerry is the perfect dead man, showing up shirtless à la Ghost or in stagy flashbacks. (The couple’s meet-cute recalls those old Irish Spring commercials.) But soon the missives don’t arrive swiftly enough, and the pile-up of female stereotypes and fantasies evokes little that’s fresh or moving. The kicker, though, is Holly’s love of Bette Davis movies. More than a contrivance, it’s a rueful reminder of all that this “women’s pic” isn’t. 97 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Circle/Chestnut Hill + suburbs
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- Inside the prize-filled trophy home of a seemingly obsessive-compulsive contest enterer
- A do-gooder who recorded abusive Boston police officers was himself arrested under a controversial ‘wiretapping’ law
- That intoxicating smell, the siren-call sizzle — looks like pop culture has gone hog wild
- Never mind its tough-girl alt-porn feminism: SuicideGirls has already moved on to a new generation
- We already know about politicians’ capacity for coarse behavior. But how low can the press go?
- Body modification as art at the Peabody Essex Museum
- That intoxicating smell, the siren-call sizzle — looks like pop culture has gone hog wild
- Is there one political story the press shouldn’t report?
- Dutoit and Elder at the BSO, Collage’s Berio, Boston Conservatory’s Turn of the Screw, and Kurt Weill at the Gardner and the MFA
- Body modification as art at the Peabody Essex Museum
- The right of a performance artist represents the rights of all Americans. Plus, an opportunity with Cuba.
- We already know about politicians’ capacity for coarse behavior. But how low can the press go?
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Flamboyant revelations
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Bad Santa ripoff
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A layered art-world exploitation
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Whisker-close footage
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Passion ignites at an animal-themed costume party
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Surf's Up wipes out
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- Unintentional laughs
- A step ahead of the rest
- Too many weird gimmicks
- Religious groups and the environment
- A rich kid on the road to comeuppance
- A shambling charmer
- Revisit one of the great films about the artistic process
- Seraphim in France
- Poignant enough
- An 88-minute flop
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