P.S.
By: Mark Runyon | Category: DVD Archive | 02/10/05 | 10:43 PM
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Grade: C+ | Genre:
Drama
Summary: This one is like a complex abstract painting. You can tell there are flashes of brilliance within but you're not quite sure what the artist was getting at. |
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Staring: Laura Linney, Topher Grace, Gabriel Byrne and Marcia Gay Harden
Director: Dylan Kidd
P.S. reflects on Louise (Laura Linney in her second turn this year following the mesmerizing Kinsey) an admissions officer at Columbia Art School. She finds herself at 39 recently divorced with a real void in her life. Scott (Topher Grace) enters as a 24-year-old MFA candidate who is eerily a mirror image of her boyfriend who died when she was in high school. His name, his face, his artwork and way of speaking all point to a reincarnated version of her lost love. They fall into bed, albeit awkwardly, and begin this improbable romance. Although the May-December romance seems to be all the rage these days with the Demi's and the Ashton's of this world, it's still more than a little jarring to look at. She looks like his mother instead of the vibrant, mysterious older women Benjamin Braddock had in Mrs. Robinson. While Louise is trying to channel her own youthful self through Scott, we can't really see where his intentions lie. Is he toying with her emotions to get acceptance to grad school? Is this tapping into that fantasy of being with an older woman or does he actually care about her? Grace and Linney are fabulous actors giving very solid performances throughout. There are moments, like when Grace is standing in front of the mirror imagining his older self, that smack of greatness but the story gets mired down in side plot lines. Her relationship with her brother, the twisted best friend and the ex-husband with the reveling addiction. Why were any of these ingrediants added to this? All these tangents don't reinforce Louise's internal stuggle they just serve as distraction. After the amazing debut Dylan Kidd had with Rodger Dodger, I expected that he would have pulled in the reins tighter on this one. In the end, this is worth checking for Linney and Grace's performance yet it's disappointing that the story didn't grab it's essence and fulfill it's potential.
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