Delayed Reaction: P.S. I Love You

What I Guessed It Was About: Hillary Swank or Gerard Butler dies - probably Butler, because that's how romantic comedies work - and leaves behind a bunch of letters for the other. They start with how it's all sad to be gone and ends with letters saying to move on when she finds another guy that she falls in love with.

How I Came Into It: You can tell from the cover of the box that the point of this movie is to make you cry. I'm not a big Hilary Swank fan (See: Understatement). I wasn't prepared to find her sympathetic. Then again, if I didn't feel bad for her in Million Dollar Baby, I doubt I ever will. I should like Gerard Butler, right? Or is he just a dirty Clive Owen? I can't tell.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) A good way to make me appreciate a movie that I'd otherwise be indifferent about is to include a lot of Irish music. Using The Pogues and Flogging Molly is a great start. Certainly, to make me say I actually liked it, it would be to include some Gaelic Storm (which it didn't), but I'm not in a position to be picky. This is the most I've liked Swank in anything and it's an interesting shift for Butler after 300. I liked that Swank and Harry Connick Jr. weren't right for each other too. You know, I must've enjoyed this movie more than I initially thought.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I didn't buy Swank and Butler as a couple. They are a RomCom couple and the movie rails against being a RomCom. They have a meet-cute. They are one of those couples that does nothing but fight and make up. That's all good and fine except for all the times it wants me to cry, it doesn't feel earned. I don't know. Technically, the movie didn't do anything wrong, however it didn't work for me.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend