With two Oscars under her belt, leading lady Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby, Boys Don’t Cry) seems like a pretty safe bet at the box office - or in this case for a DVD purchase.  As far as I was concerned, PS I Love You sounded like a fairly safe bet.  Swank plays Holly Kennedy, a woman who loses the love of her life, Gerry (Gerard Butler) to a terminal illness and she is unable to easily cope with the loss.  Before he died, Gerry wrote her a series of letters to help teach her the lessons he knew she’d most need help with in dealing with the loss and learning how to stand on her own two feet and move on.  The first message arrives on Holly’s 30th birthday in the form of a cake and, to her utter shock, a tape recording from Gerry, who proceeds to order her to get out and “celebrate herself.”

While the film is not a total loss, the biggest issue I had with the film is that it didn’t seem to entirely commit Swank’s character (or the storyline) to a specific enough mold for the audience to sink it’s teeth into.  At times it would start to ease into the feel of a romantic comedy, then suddenly shift gears back to the angst of loss.  Perhaps the notion was that grief is a very confusing emotion, but it shouldn’t be so confusing to the audience that we’re not sure which ride we’re on.  I personally wish they would have just picked one and gone all or nothing.  Make it a romantic comedy about moving on and learning how to let go - or make it a heart tugging drama about the pain of loss, coping and learning. 

That being said, the film wasn’t a total loss.  Lisa Kudrow does a great job as the best friend with some of the best lines in the movie.  Butler held his own, though the overabundance of ‘irish charm’ gets a little too gooey in spots.  Overall the acting was fine enough to keep me watching, the direction of the story seemed to cause the bumps. 

As long as you don’t have your heart set on some solid meat to sink your teeth in, and are willing to take it for what it’s worth, then you might be in like with this movie.   If nothing else, it does remind us all about remembering not to take the people in our life for granted.  That’s never a bad thing to have a nudge about from time to time. Unfortunately I think it missed the mark in terms of having you fall in love with it.   It’s fairly predictable and nothing special, but may make for a good enough viewing on a rainy day.

Seasoned actor Will Smith stars in this film as Robert Neville,  a brilliant scientist who survives a terrible virus that was seemingly unstoppable, incurable, and man-made. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and maybe the world.

Director Francis Lawrence (CONSTANTINE) makes the most minimal use of music in this film, allowing the haunting silence of the deserted remains to linger in one’s senses.    The savage zombie killers never speak, yet they are intelligent, and consider themselves the rightful heirs to the planet that the humans once dominated.  While the film does raise a lot of points it never manages to answer (how a cancer cure could wreak such strengthening havoc on a person’s genetic makeup),  the film does manage to pull enough out if it’s hat to make it work - largely in part due to Smith’s incredible acting performance.  The entire crux of the movie seems to rest on the shoulders of Smith’s ability to portray the vast loneliness and desparation one would imagine finding themselves in such a situation.  Had anyone lesser been cast in the role, I don’t think the movie would have been able to pull it off nearly as well.

While I’m not necessarily looking forward to any sequel to where the film left off, I did find myself entertained enough to not wander off during the movie, as well as being left with a bit deeper appreciation for Will Smith’s ability to act.  Maybe I’ll finally be able to shed my memories of him as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and see him for the rock solid actor he has matured into.

 The film is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence.