P.S. I Love You - From Book to Movie, The Lost Laughs

Let me just place on record the fact that I am yet to find a movie that is as good as, let alone better than, its book. Please re-read that sentence, and etch it into your sub-conscious image of myself. There. Now you can refer to me as that woman who doesn't like movie versions of books.

That said, I think I do not hate the guy who turned the book P.S. I Love You into a movie.Why? Because he did not totally ruin the story. The nucleus of the story is Holly's grief. The grief really comes across in the movie - I found myself crying several times, in the oddest places. Okay, before I get ahead of myself, here's the plot of the story:

Holly Kennedy is a bouncy happy young lady, married to the dashing, girl-heart-breakingly handsome, irresistible Gerry. The couple are surrounded by good friends, complete with quirkiness and adorable relationship updates. They frequently hit the pubs, go wild on the town, attend Christmas balls dressed like royalty and sing a mean karaoke! Everything is fine, flitting along in a dizzyingly happy-go-lucky pace, until....

... Gerry dies.

If you thought that was the end of the book, you have another thought coming! Actually, THIS is where the book begins - with Holly's grief, her friends rallying around on her birthday (the saddest day for the poor girl), and a mystery gift from Gerry (who, at this point is very dead!) Got you hooked now, huh?!

So, basically, Gerry knew that he was going to die, and made elaborate plans for his wife, writing letters full of instructions on how she should move on, after he is no more. Everything from buying herself a new dress for her birthday, to finding a job, and eventually, to trying to find love again.

The interest of the story lies in how Holly deals with her grief, and how Gerry helps her to move one with her life, from beyond. You should be crying now....or at least, please look at this solitary tear rolling down my cheek...

I read the book, and it's humor shocked me - no, it was not humor that needs to be rated, but the fact that there was humor! How could Cecilia Ahern bring humor into a novel about the death of a spouse?! But bring the humor, she did! I found myself chuckling unexpectedly at the slightly slapstick comedy that she sprung on me, now and then! Sometimes we feel respect for Holly at the way she is dealing with such a profound loss. At other times, we feel, "How profoundly stupid can one woman be?!" Come on.... Again, sometimes, we end up feeling that Holly is just such a clown! An adorable clown that we can all relate to.

All the characters in the story are well-defined, and extremely lovable, because they are people just like us. People who have the alarming capacity to say the most unfeeling, cringe-worthy thing in the world to a friend or sibling, but who will also go to great lengths to make that person happy.

Read the book - it will bring your heart a nice cinnamon warmth with pink sprinkles...don't know why, but that is the image that comes to mind, when I think of this book. Probably something to do with the cover of the book:

...at least the 'pink sprinkles' part!

P.S. I Love You, the movie, is a very condensed form of the book. To probably emphasize the grief factor and really make us cry, they have made a few changes to the plot. For instance, in the book, Holly has a mom and a dad, but in the movie, her dad left her mom when they were little children. This situation gives way to a heart-rending scene between mother and daughter, where they cry about how their men leave them. I bawled at this point of the movie...*sob sob*. Of course, like everything with Holly, this heart-to-heart ends abruptly, and humorously, with her biting remark to her mother that while her mother's husband just up and left irresponsibly, her husband actually died! Oh, well...


One thing I did not like about the movie, was that the 'sibling' angle was totally ignored. Holly has a beautiful but complicated relationship with each of her siblings, which is totally missing in the movie. The place is prominently taken by the two friends. It's good, but you're missing a terribly funny story about Holly's brother, if you don't' read the book! That's all I'm saying. The other thing I dislike is Hillary Swank...I think she had better stick to women's-liberation- macho-women roles...something about the jaw bones is off-putting. Raise your hand if you agree.

Watch the movie...but seriously, read the book too, ok? Maybe you should watch the movie first (you might have already seen it, if StarMovies is the only thing you watch!), and then read the book, so that you can enjoy the beautiful movie, and then cry and laugh some more at the even better book. Ladies, you need a box of tissues. Just a warning. Men, learn from Gerry - that is all I have to say about this.

  

And ladies, you have been warned. There is some serious eye-candy onslaught in this movie. Just saying...

Sighing...

more sighing...

sigh...