p.s.
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Newmarket Films
Grade: B+
Directed by: Dylan Kidd
Written by: Helen Schulman, Dylan Kidd, novel by Helen
Schulman
Cast: Laura Linney, Topher Grace, Gabriel Byrne, marcia Gay
Harden, Paul Rudd, Lois Smith
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 9/27/04
"P.s." may not be groundbreaking, but as romantic comedy the
pic is more authentic, more sincere, more believable than
anything of that genre that has ever featured Hugh Grant or
Julia Roberts. The key to its charm is a performance by the
terminally likable Laura Linney, an actress who is as
comfortable on the legitimate stage ("Sight Unseen") as in the
movies ("Mystic River," "Love Actually"). Directed and co-written
by Dylan Kidd, whose "Roger Dodger," a portrait of a
misanthrope who fancies himself a lady-killer and was one of
my five faves in 2002, "p.s." represents a change of direction for
Kidd–unless you count sex-addict Peter Harrington (Gabriel
Byrne) as reprehensible a guy as the titled Roger.
Adapating a story by co-scripter Helen Schulman, Kidd unfolds
a nicely-told romantic comedy-drama in and around Columbia
University, an Ivy League institution whose Fine Arts department
appears to exist largely for the pleasure of student applicants
like F. Scott Feinstadt (Topher Grace).
"P.s." is part ghost story in that F. Scott–whose uses the name
to impress the admissions director at Columbia but whose
friends call him Fran–possesses the same name as a boyfriend
that dean Louise Harrington (Laura Linney) enjoyed in high
school who was "stolen" from her by her best friend Missy
(Marcia Gay Harden) and who was killed in a car crash twenty
years earlier. Spookily enough, Fran not only has the same
name but a similar appearance and voice and what's more he
is, like the late boyfriend, a painter. His application to Columbia
forces Louise to come to grips with her past and to try to avoid
mistakes she is prone to repeat. In short, unlike most other
romantic films in which obstacles are regularly put forth by
society to prevent two lovers from making a commitment,
Louise has become her own worst enemy, the person who sets
up the obstacles to her fulfillment.
Among the revelations made is a confession (for no obvious
reason) by Louise's ex-husband Peter (Gabriel Byrne) that he is
a sex addict who has had one hundred affairs with women and
ten with men, including one with Louise's own drug-addicted
brother, Sam (Paul Rudd).
The story is well-written, its humor coming from
understatements, the best of which is a line by student F. Scott
to his mother, whom he calls to say that the interview "went
pretty well...I was in and out in minutes." (This after Louise
seduces the lad in her apartment within a hour of meeting him in
her office.)
The one disappointment is a strange performance by Marcia
Gay Harden in the role of Missy, the woman who had stolen by
late F. Scott from Louise back in high school. Her drinking and
especially her cynical conversation are so beyond the pale that
we wonder how any man could have related to her for ten
minutes.
Not Yet Rated. 105 minutes © Harvey Karten
at harveycritic@cs.com
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