Wow. I finally saw P.S. (2004) tonight, for the first time, something I had been meaning to do since Catherine reviewed it last summer. I found it in a discount bin the other day, and picked it up - I trust Catherine that much. Oh, and the fact that the ever-sweet Topher Grace is one of those people I would love to fold up and stick in my pocket doesn't hurt, either. (This also co-stars Gabriel Byrne, who really shines here, and the always compelling Laura Linney.)
Loved it, loved it, loved it. I can't say that enough. It was a wonderful picture that lingers with me.
Catherine was right to specify that this is not a reincarnation movie. A reincarnation movie, for example, would be the banal (yet strangely likable) Chances Are (1989), in which an older woman finds and pursues the reincarnation of her Great Love, who happens to be her daughter's boyfriend (an adorable Robert Downey Jr.).
Rather, P.S. is about a movie about people who think (or pretend) that they are perfectly stable, but, who, in reality, carry far too much with them - things that can make or break them, depending on how they choose to deal with that baggage. But it is also about generations, and the ways in which new life has to break through the crust left by predecessors - not reincarnation, but an actual honest struggle for individuality and space in a world shaped by one's elders.
Unlike dolls, humans don't come in boxes, but it sure doesn't take the world long to try trap us into them once we get here.
I really can't recommend this enough - romantic, touching and even sexy, this is a movie made out of small moments and subtle touches. Wonderful detail is what makes this movie live, weaving all the un-highlighted behaviours, which make more and more sense as the plot develops, giving one the sense that they are not be told a story, but are really getting to know breathing people.
Well, well, well worth the rental, I promise.
(Oh, and a PS of my own: I also finally got around to filling in my Photobucket albums, so feel free to take a leaf through.)
2 comments:
Any good thing I'll ever have to say about this movie depends entirely upon what you mean when you say Topher Grace is someone you'd love to fold up and stick in your pocket.
Nothing indecent, I assure you - I am a married woman.
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