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P.S. Send This Review to a Friend
Having appreciated director Dylan Kidd’s “Roger Dodger” so much, I’m especially disappointed in “P.S.,” which he has directed and co-written with Helen Schulman, upon whose book the film is based. Despite the presence of actress Laura Linney, who rises above whatever she may be in, “P.S.” is simply awful and it is clearly the story rather than the direction that is to blame. The film was one of the poorer choices in he 2004 Toronto International Film Festival.
The basic set-up has potential. Linney plays Louise, an admissions administrator at Columbia University’s School of Fine Arts, who comes across the name of a student seeking acceptance. He soon gets into much more than the university. Louise initiates an affair with him, and it’s hot going for a while. The idea of a woman getting it on with a younger student instead of what is more often shown as a male university mating habit has a spark of freshness.
But the screenplay turns into such a crock that the film soon becomes laughable. There is gibberish about the lad having the same name as a late, former lover, which adds a metaphysical aspect to what triggers Louise’s attraction. There is nonsense over the relationship with Louise and her former husband Peter, a professor (Gabriel Byrne), and a silly plot detour involving Louise’s friend Missy (Marcia Gay Harden) and their rivalry, first over the man whom the new one reminds them of, and then over the new guy in town.
Topher Grace is attractive enough as the applicant-lover, F. Scott Feinstadt, and Linney is gallant fighting against the terrible screenplay. The one bright prospect for “P.S.” is that it holds out the fantasy of scoring for young men applying for a Columbia admissions interview.
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