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P.S.

P.S. (2004)

October. 15,2004
|
6.1
| Drama Romance

Louise, an unfulfilled divorced woman with regrets, gets the chance to relive her past when she meets a young man who bears an uncanny resemblance, in name and appearance, to her high school sweetheart who died many years before.

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Reviews

Livestonth
2004/10/15

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

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Roman Sampson
2004/10/16

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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Scarlet
2004/10/17

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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Francene Odetta
2004/10/18

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

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BobbyT24
2004/10/19

This is one of those stories that made me feel dirty watching it. Not because the subject matter was slightly perverse or startling. What I saw was a low-budget movie which never broke out of the low-budget feel. It just felt... cheap.Let's for a moment forget the fact the whole premise is a psychiatrist's worst nightmare - a person can't get over the death of their first love so let's replace that person with another (much younger) person who shares the same name and start an affair in the most awkward, look-away kind of way possible. Cougars have feelings too and I applaud anyone trying to give middle-aged woman an outlet. But why does a well-educated, attractive, intelligent divorcée think she needs to immediately "bed" (or "couch") the first incoming freshman that remotely hints at the fact she's hot? Laura Linney wearing a low-cut dress and leaning over to look at a couple slides would make any 18-year-old lose any inhibitions he would have. "Obvious" isn't the only word that springs to mind. But the way this came across was so desperate and off-the-wall it was off-putting. And the best friend on the phone... Wow, I could have put more emotion and believability into that character as a male and non-actor than that actress showed throughout the movie. The whole movie was screaming "exposition" before any real acting was taking place. People do not act or speak in real life the way they do throughout most of this movie. It was scripted and you could see/hear it over and over and over and.... Then there's the actual acting... It's billed (I believe) as somewhat of a romantic comedy. I didn't find anything romantic or funny about a near-middle-age ice queen dropping her panties for a cock-sure, jackass of a student who obviously only expected to get laid at every chance possible. At Columbia University no less. Yeah, that's what I expect when I think of the Ivy League - tenured professors ready to jump any quasi-interesting teenager at the drop of a name on an envelope. Teacher ethics mean nothing at one of our most prestigious and respected American universities I guess. You don't think an admissions officer would think twice about exchanging admission to THE IVY LEAGUE for sexual favors with a cute student??? I guess the job (or your entire education career no less) can't be that outstanding to throw it away for one very brief (and unfulfilling) affair with a student - who considers you a just "notch on his belt" anyway. Oh, yeah. That's a serious educator in my opinion... PUHHHH-leeez. Educated people are more subtle than that. Columbia deserved so much better than this.And the direction... Who funded this project, anyway? A hormone-enraged Columbia student with daddy's credit card and the hots for Laura Linney in various stages of undress??? That's what it feels like. The soundtrack came and went during the least opportune times. The editing during the phone conversations screamed "amateur" at all times. Everything seemed so scripted there was absolutely no believability to the situations. It was actors mouthing words off a page. I have seen less cardboard acting at grade school recitals about the four basic food groups. It literally felt like the writer/director was going one direction with the story, ran into a monkey wrench plot twist, and instead of naturally creating a solution, the writer/director just threw in the silliest, least inspired way to jump over the problem with a minor (re: unnecessary) character showing up out of nowhere to further the plot, then the minor character disappears until they are "magically" needed again to push our main characters along in their story to the inevitable end. Reality has no place in this script. Just "plot points". The audience needs more respect than that.Skip this movie. It really isn't worth your time. I rate it a 3 out of 10 because it shows Columbia University in beautiful lighting and I like Laura Linney and Topher Grace. Unfortunately, this wasn't close to their best efforts.

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Chrysanthepop
2004/10/20

Dylan Kidd's 'P.S.' centres around 'Louise', a 39 year old university professor who falls in love with a prospective student...thinking that he's the boyfriend who died twenty years ago. But, hang on, this isn't your usual back-from-the dead/ reincarnation love story. The film delves far deeper into Louise's psyche, exploring her inner turmoil and unresolved conflicts. We later learn that this deceased boyfriend wasn't even a nice fellow and yet Louside holds on to a memory that wasn't even real. Kidd's storytelling is quite tricky. At times I thought it was all in Louise's head but neither this nor the alternative is ever confirmed. Shot beautifully, with a fine background score. 'P.S.' is a well-made film. While the editing is mostly good, I felt some of the deleted scenes should have been left in, like the post-interview café sequence which added to the Louise and Fran characters. Laura Linney carries the role with natural grace. Her castmates Topher Grace, Lois Smith, Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden and Paul Rudd provide great support. 'P.S.' may not be everyone's cup of coffee but it's definitely my kind of film.

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MBunge
2004/10/21

Your enjoyment level with this movie will depend on two things.1. Your appreciation of the lovely Laura Linney.2. Your ability to appreciate individual elements that are quite good but don't come together to make a good film.Louise Harrington (Laura Linney) is the director of admissions for the art program at Columbia University. She's 39 years old and divorced, but knows she's still attractive. Her ex-husband Peter (Gabriel Byrne) is a Columbia professor. They were married for ten years and now have one of those divorcée relationships that are supposed to be mature but are really just unhealthy. They have lunch together on campus and have regular dinners at each other's homes. Essentially, they're one of these couples who get divorced but then continue to carry on with about 80% of their married life together. Louise also has a larger-than-life best friend named Missy (Marcia Gay Harden) who lives across the country with her rich husband and scandalizes Louise with phone calls about lusting after the pool boy.One day, after rejecting a series of applicants, she's stopped short by a letter. It's from a young man named F. Scott Feinstadt (Topher Grace) and Louise is completely taken aback by it. Even though his application isn't complete, she invites him for an interview and rather aggressively seduces him. It seems that Louise's high school boyfriend was named Scott Feinstadt. She loved him and then he died and now Louise is caught up with the wild idea her great love has returned to her. As you might guess, a budding romance between a woman and a young man she's thinks might be her dead boyfriend runs into a few snags. Louise also has to deal with a revelation from Peter that abnormally disturbs her and a simmering conflict with her recovering addict brother (Paul Rudd) before F. Scott finally finds out why Louise took a fancy to him.There are a lot of things about this movie that work on their own but when they try to put them all together, it really doesn't click.Laura Linney is splendid, as always, but she's playing facets of a character instead of a whole woman. At times she's wrapped up in a fantasy. Other times, she's got a very cold-blooded grip on reality. Sometimes she's very much in command and others she's very much affected by so many things. For a woman to so quickly and so strongly latch onto the "my dead boyfriend's come back to me" thing, she's got to be very sad and lonely and unhappy and a little pathetic. Linney tries all she can to convey all of that, but she's hampered by a story that doesn't understand or doesn't want to admit how messed up Louise must be.Topher Grace looks and feels a little too old for this role, but his performance of a young artist is spot on. He plays him as genuinely young, with a fragile sense of himself and an unsettled relationship to the world.The only unconvincing acting job of the movie is Marcia Gay Harden's, and I'm not sure it's her fault at all. Missy is less a character and more a living deus ex machina. Missy exists to facilitate the ending of this story, which means her behavior doesn't make sense as a human being but only as a servant of the Almighty Plot Hammer.There are also two things about this story that are just too cute. For one, we're never really told the whole story about Louise and her high school boyfriend. Certain things are implied and we're clearly meant to assume that it was this great and wonderful love story. But then toward the end of the movie, we're told that it was much more mundane and common and even tawdry. It's like the movie plays a trick by letting you believe in this romantic fantasy and then dumps a bucket of cold water on you. The second problem is that the whole "he's her dead high school boyfriend" thing just sort of goes away in the middle of the film. It's ignored and we get about 30 minutes of a perfectly conventional story about an older woman infatuated with a younger man but still conflicted about his youth. We also get the stuff with Peter, which seems very contrived, and the stuff with Louise's brother, which only makes sense when the movie beats us over the head with what it's supposed to mean later on.If you're a Laura Linney fan, she's just as good here as in her other films. A lot of those other films, however, are much better than this.

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Spencer Means
2004/10/22

The film is fascinating to watch, as a remarkable group of actors make a tricky premise psychologically plausible. The actors (Linney, Grace, and Harden in particular) never make a false step in bringing their characters to life, and the implausible premise seems somehow unimportant as they draw the viewer into a believable existential drama. The abrupt and ambiguous ending disappoints and destroys the possibility of regarding the film as a satisfying work of art, but as a complex depiction of a life in which dreams have been destroyed (and perhaps are salvaged), and as a field-day for several great actors, it's an exhilarating experience.

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