P.S. I Love You

P.S. I Love You (2007) is about a woman whose husband dies and who then starts receiving letters from him. Holly and Gerry live in New York. He dies of a brain tumour. She does not leave the flat for months. On her thirtieth birthday a tape arrives. After learning he was ill, Gerry wrote a series of letters and arranged their timing with their friends. Each one sets a task: buy something, go somewhere, do something. They all end with the same line. The tasks get her out of the house. One of them sends her to Ireland, where he came from. The idea is that the letters are not a consolation but a programme. He designed them to stop her holding on to him, and the last letter says so outright. It is adapted from Cecelia Ahern's novel, written when she was twenty one and her first. Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler star. Butler is Scottish; the character is Irish in both book and film and the accent was argued over. Richard LaGravenese directed. The Irish sections were shot on location. Lisa Kudrow and Gina Gershon play the friends and carry the humour. The sentiment is very high and the film does not hide it; the aim is to make you cry. Critics disliked it, it did well commercially, and it found a lasting audience. It runs 126 minutes. Good for: romantic drama, films about grief, and book adaptations. Less good for: it is long, close to emotional manipulation, and hard if bereavement is close to you.