P.S.
I wanted to see P.S. (2004) when it was in theatres, way back in the day, i.e. Hamilton, a lifetime ago, a.k.a. when I didn’t live with my parents. Sigh.
In P.S., Laura Linney plays Louise, a calm divorcee who works in the admissions department of Columbia University’s Fine Art Department. She hangs out too much with her ex-husband and the woman that she claims to be her best friend (Missy) is a morally-deficit wannabe adulteress who lives a long-distance phone call away. Not far enough.
Her polite and orderly life hiccoughs when she receives an application from F. Scott Feinstein (Topher Grace). Louise is stopped short by his handwriting and use of language, which is identical to her high school boyfriend, a boy named Scott Feinstein. Scott was killed in a car accident when he was eighteen.
She immediately calls F. Scott in for an interview and is shocked by the similarities between her Scott and this F. Scott, especially their shared likeness. The painting samples that F. Scott brings in are beautiful, and although the dead boyfriend worked more in abstracts, F. Scott’s paintings are close-up snapshots of mundane but intimate moments. The paintings are the work of Bryan Lebeouf.
P.S. is not a reincarnation movie. It’s shouldn’t be compared with P.S.’ contemporary Birth (2004), which also marketed itself as a mystical second-chance for a broken-hearted woman (with a rudimentary understanding of the complexities of reincarnation). In Birth, the “reincarnated” lover is 10. In P.S., he’s in his mid-twenties. Therefore, a sexual relationship is not creepy/illegal.
In this film, the rebirth is not that of the young lover, but of the abandoned woman. Louise was literally and figuratively living under a blurry image of the late Scott. Scott sits on a pedestal, and it isn’t until a conversation with her best friend that we find that she shouldn’t have been so quick to canonise.
Laura Linney is spot on, as usual. Her Louise’s life is usually so controlled that her sudden recklessness rejuvenates her. She’s passionate, but also controlled so that at any moment of elevated stress, she is likely to boil over. Where did this woman come from? Why had I not heard of her until recently?
No, the sole reason I watched this movie was not because Topher Grace is on my husband list. Which he is. It didn’t hurt, though. He was featured in the March 2006 Vanity Fair, where he was dubbed “The New Tom Hanks-Jack Lemmon-James Stewart” (pg306). That’s a tall order: the attractive in a non-threatening way, funny and sensitive leading man. I think he disappears into this characters more than those three other actors. He turned heads in Traffic (2000), although well-intentioned, bored me to death in Win a Date with Tad Hamilton (2004), and impressed me all over again in In Good Company (2004). Please don’t think of him as only Eric Forman.
P.S. is the kind of small, intimate character film that I love to fall into from time to time. It reminded me of The Squid and the Whale (2005), another brilliant Linney movie.
In P.S., Laura Linney plays Louise, a calm divorcee who works in the admissions department of Columbia University’s Fine Art Department. She hangs out too much with her ex-husband and the woman that she claims to be her best friend (Missy) is a morally-deficit wannabe adulteress who lives a long-distance phone call away. Not far enough.
Her polite and orderly life hiccoughs when she receives an application from F. Scott Feinstein (Topher Grace). Louise is stopped short by his handwriting and use of language, which is identical to her high school boyfriend, a boy named Scott Feinstein. Scott was killed in a car accident when he was eighteen.She immediately calls F. Scott in for an interview and is shocked by the similarities between her Scott and this F. Scott, especially their shared likeness. The painting samples that F. Scott brings in are beautiful, and although the dead boyfriend worked more in abstracts, F. Scott’s paintings are close-up snapshots of mundane but intimate moments. The paintings are the work of Bryan Lebeouf.
P.S. is not a reincarnation movie. It’s shouldn’t be compared with P.S.’ contemporary Birth (2004), which also marketed itself as a mystical second-chance for a broken-hearted woman (with a rudimentary understanding of the complexities of reincarnation). In Birth, the “reincarnated” lover is 10. In P.S., he’s in his mid-twenties. Therefore, a sexual relationship is not creepy/illegal.
In this film, the rebirth is not that of the young lover, but of the abandoned woman. Louise was literally and figuratively living under a blurry image of the late Scott. Scott sits on a pedestal, and it isn’t until a conversation with her best friend that we find that she shouldn’t have been so quick to canonise.
Laura Linney is spot on, as usual. Her Louise’s life is usually so controlled that her sudden recklessness rejuvenates her. She’s passionate, but also controlled so that at any moment of elevated stress, she is likely to boil over. Where did this woman come from? Why had I not heard of her until recently?
No, the sole reason I watched this movie was not because Topher Grace is on my husband list. Which he is. It didn’t hurt, though. He was featured in the March 2006 Vanity Fair, where he was dubbed “The New Tom Hanks-Jack Lemmon-James Stewart” (pg306). That’s a tall order: the attractive in a non-threatening way, funny and sensitive leading man. I think he disappears into this characters more than those three other actors. He turned heads in Traffic (2000), although well-intentioned, bored me to death in Win a Date with Tad Hamilton (2004), and impressed me all over again in In Good Company (2004). Please don’t think of him as only Eric Forman.
P.S. is the kind of small, intimate character film that I love to fall into from time to time. It reminded me of The Squid and the Whale (2005), another brilliant Linney movie.
posted by Catherine at 10:11 a.m.
3 Comments:
In reference to Topher Grace:
A) A young Jack Lemmon, definitely, but I think much funnier than Stewart (bless his soul). I would suggest a future new Tyrone Power (ca. _Nightmare Alley_), but no one remembers who that is anymore...
B) You say "only Eric Forman" like this is a bad thing, when this character ranks right up there with Hawkeye Pierce as a loveable and memorable classic character of American TV (a rare thing).
C) Comparing him to Tom Hanks saddens me, and I would hope we can expect more than faddism from Topher's future, and a far, far wider range of skill.
Topher Grace exceeds by miles the prospects of his generation, and may actually be a sign of some hope for young American male actors who don't easily sell themselves to poo-poo comedies.
Good call for the husband list, though would you really like to be Catherine Grace?? (Sounds like a refugee from the Royals.)
Keep in mind that I have a built-in defensiveness against those who might turn up their noses at the Grace. (I'm actually mildly surprised that you approve so much of this guy, Holly, since he's so mainstream and poppy.)
You're right to not dismiss the role of Eric Forman, since everything you said is spot on (as usual), but I should have been clearer: don't think of him as JUST Eric Forman.
You're right, too - Catherine Grace sounds amazing (Amazing Grace?), but the name would have to be pretty great for me to change mine! One exception: Clooney.
I have never said that things that were popular couldn't also be good. I like Elvis, don't I?
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