Warner Home Video presents
P.S. I Love You (2007)

Daniel: We'll be really weird friends, joined by self-pity, bitterness and vomit.
Holly: I'd like that.
- Harry Connick Jr., Hilary Swank

Review By: Mark Zimmer   
Published: May 05, 2008

Stars: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler
Other Stars: Lisa Kudrow, Harry Connick Jr., Gina Gershon, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kathy Bates, James Marsters
Director: Richard LaGravenese

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual references and brief nudity
Run Time: 02h:05m:53s
Release Date: May 06, 2008
UPC: 085391138624
Genre: romantic comedy

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
B+	B	B+	B	B-

DVD Review

Gerard Butler has proven to be quite the chameleon in the last few years, hardly recognizable as the same actor in such parts as Leonidas in 300, the title role in The Phantom of the Opera and Beowulf in the other version of the epic, Beowulf and Grendel. But he hews somewhat closer to his own personality for a change in this delightful romantic comedy based on the bestselling novel of the same title by Cecelia Ahern, shifted in locale from Ireland to America.

Although his presence as Gerry Kennedy is felt throughout the picture, he's only present alive in the first sequence; by the time the titles hit he's deceased from a brain tumor, leaving wife Holly (Hilary Swank) a 29-year-old widow. As she descends into depression, her friends Denise (Lisa Kudrow) and Sharon (Gina Gershon) and her mother (Kathy Bates) try to pull her out of it, to no avail. But everything changes on her 30th birthday, when she starts to get letters and gifts from Gerry, planned well before his death. The letters both form a tie between Holly and Gerry and help to get her to adjust to his loss and move on with her life.

The concept seems a little ghoulish at first blush, but it works pretty well overall, thanks to the odd establishing sequence that finds the couple at each others' throats over a variety of issues, only to fly into each others' arms passionately. It hardly feels like the stuff of romantic comedy, so angry do they seem to be, but it definitely sets up the level of passion between the leads that makes the rest of the film work.

Butler is thoroughly engaging in flashbacks and also as an imaginary spectral force that reaches out to Holly as she reads his letters. Although Scottish, he is quite creditable as a fun-loving Irishman. Swank doesn't have his warmth, and it's a shade difficult to see what Gerry would see in Holly, but on the whole the two are convincing enough. Harry Connick Jr. is very funny as Holly's would-be suitor who suffers from the inability to keep from blurting out his thoughts. Oddly enough, even though Connick is the professional musician, he's one of the few actors not singing in the picture. Kathy Bates is terrific as Holly's mother, trying to reach her daughter by sharing her own difficult history in an embarrassed but awkwardly helpful manner.

I'm sympathetic with the difficulties of trying to adapt a rather sprawling novel, but there are a few structural issues. The picture wears out its welcome quite a bit before the end, and tighter pacing would help. The shift from Ireland to America results in some awkward transitions as Holly needs to get back and forth not once but twice. While Kudrow's character gets some amusing definition early on, we never really get any kind of handle on Gershon's, whose part seems either underwritten or largely snipped out. Those are fairly minor quibbles, however, as the unabashed romance helps keep the picture enjoyable for the most part.

Rating for Style: B+
Rating for Substance: B

 

Image Transfer

	One	Two
Aspect Ratio	1.85:1 - Full Frame	1.33:1 - P&S
Original Aspect Ratio	yes	yes
Anamorphic	yes	yes

Image Transfer Review: The two-sided disc features the original aspect ratio on one side and a pan & scan version on the other. The transfer looks pretty good overall, with excellent color and good shadow detail. There's fairly solid grain structure, although some sequences feel rather soft, as if they've been victimized by digital noise reduction. Artifacting isn't a noticeable problem at any point.

Image Transfer Grade: B+

 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
Dolby Digital 5.1	English, French, Spanish	yes

Audio Transfer Review: Although there are 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks, the dialogue is pretty much buried in the center channel. The surrounds are limited to the score and mild ambient sound. While clean, it's not particularly impressive or sonically notable.

Audio Transfer Grade: B

 

Disc Extras

Static menu with music
Scene Access with 28 cues and remote access
Subtitles/Captions in English, French, Spanish with remote access
3 Other Trailer(s) featuring Fool's Gold, Mama's Boy, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
6 Deleted Scenes
2 Featurette(s)
Packaging: generic plastic keepcase
1 Disc
2-Sided disc(s)
Layers: RSDL
Layers Switch: 01h:00m:04s

Extra Extras:

1. Music video

Extras Review: Although there are three nonanamorphic widescreen trailers for unrelated movies, no trailer for the feature is present. A Conversation with Author Cecelia Ahern (7m:35s) is pretty much what it sounds like, although there are some brief interview snippets with several of the principals and producers. It's not very in-depth, however. The rather bland song Same Mistake by James Blunt is present in the form of a nonanamorphic widescreen music video. Warner seems to be going backward in terms of providing good anamorphic enhancements to supplemental materials, which is shocking considering the heavy adoption of widescreen televisions in recent years. A second featurette, The Name of the Game is Snaps (4m:46s) explains and demonstrates the bar game that is briefly featured in the movie.

A set of half a dozen "additional scenes" (with no menu or commentary) are included. These add some character bits to Holly's sister, and provide more mishaps as Holly tries to get into the outside world. The most significant one features Butler in a flashback, as he sets up a flight to Ireland for Holly; it's quite hilarious but it's also clear why it was cut since it emphasizes the fact Gerry has cancer and as a result it can't keep the tone that's being established in this part of the movie. But it'll certainly be welcome viewing for the members of the burgeoning Gerard Butler cult.

Extras Grade: B-

 

Final Comments

An underappreciated romance gets a nice transfer, and the extras are worthwhile if not plentiful.

 

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