SYNOPSIS:
Louise Harrington, a divorced thirty-something admissions
officer at the prestigious Columbia University School of the
Arts is intelligent, pretty, successful and yet unfulfilled.
That is until a graduate school application crosses her desk
and she arranges to interview the young painter.
When
Scott Feinstadt appears, he bears an uncanny resemblance to
Louise's high school boyfriend and one true love, an artist
who died in a car accident twenty years earlier. Within hours
of the interview, Louise and Scott have embarked on a passionately
uninhibited older woman/younger man affair. But is Scott just
a reminder of Louise's lost love? And is Scott just trying
to wheedle his way into the Ivy League?
Torrid
and tender, serious and sexy, P.S features a career performance
from Laura Linney (Mystic River, You Can Count on Me) and
breakthrough leading man for Topher Grace (In Good Company,
Traffic, That 70's Show).
MOVIE
REVIEW
Unwilling
to let go of the past, yet timid to discover the future possibilities
that lie for the next few decades, that probably sums up the
confusion we’d face at every turning point of our lives.
And there won’t be clear answers to any of these doubts
anytime soon.
This
Dylan Kidd-directed indie film explores those uncertainties
through the eyes of a successful yet disgruntled thirty-something
woman. When a young man enters her life in the most unexpected
manner, she is torn whether true love is awaiting her, or
whether he is just a harsh jolt in her memory of her deceased
boyfriend.
A
woman’s suffering life would not be complete without
problems coming from her ex-husband, her skeptical mother
and a shoddy brother. The sadness a woman has to bear, we
hear you say.
Just
in case you are looking for a solution to your own messed
up life in this 97-minute film, we’d tell you that you’d
be sorely disappointed. You may even feel that the story tries
to hard to fit in too many notions for its own good, but upon
retrospect, that’s what life is all about, isn’t
it?
The
gem in this movie is obviously Laura Linney who effortlessly
plays her middle-aged character with incredible conviction.
Her depiction of the confused and problem-ridden woman is
so real, you’d feel like she someone you know. There
is also Topher Grace who plays her sweet young suitor with
innocence and idealism. His energy and liveliness is a nice
contrast to Linney’s restrained forlornness.
The
supporting cast is steady as Paul Rudd, Marcia Gay Harden
and Gabriel Byrne deliver brief but rich performances.
Kidd’s
screenplay adapted from Helen Schulman’s novel may be
meandering at times, but give it a little patience, and you’d
be looking at a story which imitates life in the most intimate
way.
For
the answers, you’d have to search for them yourself.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 disc contains no extra features at all.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The visual transfer is nothing to shout about, which isn’t
the point of this movie anyway. There is a choice of English
Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
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