Metacritic Film

P.S. I Love You

Starring Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Gina Gershon, Lisa Kudrow, Harry Connick, Jr., Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kathy Bates, and James Marsters

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sexual references and brief nudity

Warner Bros. Pictures
Comedy  |  Drama
126 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters December 21, 2007

Holly Kennedy is beautiful, smart, and married to the love of her life--a passionate, funny, and impetuous Irishman named Gerry. So when Gerry's life is taken by an illness, it takes the life out of Holly. The only one who can help her is the person who is no longer there. Nobody knows Holly better than Gerry. So it's a good thing he planned ahead. Before he died, Gerry wrote Holly a series of letters that will guide her, not only through her grief but in rediscovering herself. 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." In the weeks and months that follow, more letters from Gerry are delivered in surprising ways, each sending her on a new adventure and each signing off in the same way: P.S. I Love You. Holly's mother and her best friends Sharon and Denise begin to worry that Gerry's letters are keeping Holly tied to the past, but, in fact, each letter is pushing her farther into a new future. With Gerry's words as her guide, Holly embarks on a touching, exciting, and often hilarious journey of rediscovery in a story about marriage, friendship, and how a love so strong can turn the finality of death into a new beginning for life. (Warner Bros.)

WRITTEN BY
Cecelia Ahern (novel)
Steven Rogers
Richard LaGravenese

DIRECTED BY
Richard LaGravenese

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

39 / 100

Critic Reviews

75 Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's an expensive star vehicle that also happens to be a teary, unabashedly sappy, romantic comedy with every element as purely calculated to appeal to a heterosexual woman's romantic fantasies as an episode of "All My Children."
75 Portland Oregonian Stephen Whitty
On a week when many people just want a good reason to put down their packages and smile for a couple of hours, P.S. I Love You arrives -- signed, sealed and delivered just on time.
70 The New York Times Manohla Dargis
The film is not a beautiful object or a memorable cultural one, and yet it charms, however awkwardly. Ms. Swank’s ardent sincerity and naked emotionalism dovetail nicely with Mr. LaGravenese’s melodramatic excesses.
50 Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
"B.S. I Love You" would be a more accurate title.
50 Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves
One of the most gifted dramatic actors working in movies today, Swank is stunningly ill suited for romantic comedy (or this one, anyway).
50 The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
This sappy thing is a two-hour cheat that never plays fair for a nanosecond.
50 The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Working from a novel by Cecelia Ahern, LaGravenese brings some intelligence and maturity to a genre that sorely needs it, but it isn't enough to prop up this long-winded and thoroughly bland romantic comedy.
50 Washington Post Desson Thomson
If P.S. I Love You proves anything, it's that Hilary Swank may be a great actress, but she can't do cute.
50 USA Today Claudia Puig
This misguided chick flick jumps through a lot of hoops just to state the obvious: "Life goes on, enjoy the time you have."
50 The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The film, written (with Steven Rogers) and directed by Richard LaGravenese, is long and drags in places. But the chief problem is that "P.S." feels like a gimmick.
50 ReelViews James Berardinelli
Aside from the inept "August Rush," there probably isn't a more clumsily manipulative motion picture out there this holiday season than P.S. I Love You.
50 Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Harry Connick Jr. acquits himself best of the lot.
40 Empire Helen O'Hara
Gerard Butler stars in a very good film where he helps a guarded woman get over a tragedy in her past. It’s called "Dear Frankie" - go rent that instead.
40 Village Voice Ella Taylor
Hilary Swank, who was not put in this world to simper, does little else as a young wife whose twinkly leprechaun of an Irish husband (Gerard Butler, who's Scottish, but never mind) has died.
40 Variety John Anderson
"Ghost" with a brogue, "The Notebook" without the burden of old people, this post-life comedy will have the sentimentally challenged weeping openly, while clutching desperately to the pants-legs of boyfriends and husbands who are trying to flee up the aisle.
38 New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The movie - with some gamy sexual references, a one-night stand and a long look at a stud muffin's naked buns - targets an older female audience. They may see it as unbearably cute, filled with ridiculous coincidences and laced with performances that - like the obnoxious soundtrack music - overstate the mood.
38 Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Blithely inept.
38 TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
It's tough going relieved only by some lovely Irish scenery. -
33 Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
FYI, there's zero chemistry between P.S. I Love You's two commodified headliners. P.S.: The plus in the harsh grade goes solely to the divine Lisa Kudrow, delivering desperately needed laughs as the twitchy widow's husband-hunting best friend.
30 Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Almost insufferably sufferable. It's a chick flick of the tallest order, with schmaltz galore and the sort of ongoing romantic hubris that practically screams, "This is codswallop, right?"
30 Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
You could go see P.S. I Love You, or you could hit yourself on the head with a meat mallet -- it depends on the amount of time and money you want to devote to what amounts to roughly the same experience.
25 San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand
P.S.: It stinks.
25 New York Post Lou Lumenick
A protracted piece of schmaltz, P.S. I Love You looks like a hand-me-down from Sandra Bullock and Drew Barrymore.
20 Film Threat Matthew Sorrento
Lisa Kudrow, the designated comic relief, has never been so consistently unfunny, and Gina Gershon looks uncomfortable in every (pseudo-)inspirational moment.

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