I got an email from a friend last night asking about movies with Laura Linney (she’d apparently been crapping her pants after watching The Mothman Prophecies on cable), so I thought I’d re-post this slightly redacted DVD review of P.S., which originally ran in another publication that… oh, how shall we put it this time, has yet to provide completion funds. It isn’t among the best of her canon, but does showcase the fact that you never get a stupid or wrongheaded performance from Linney. To wit:

A movie to be acknowledged for its atypical potentiality
rather than praised for its execution, P.S.
is the second feature from Roger Dodger
helmer Dylan Kidd. Here Kidd adapts, with original author Helen Schulman, the
contemporary-set novel of the same name — the story of a thirtysomething art
school admissions officer at Columbia University, Louise Harrington (Linney), who meets with and falls for a student candidate, F. Scott Feinstadt
(Topher Grace), who bears an uncanny resemblance in name, physicality, passion
and spirit to her dead high school sweetheart. Together they embark on a
hesitant, awkward affair, all while Louise tries to discern whether F. Scott is
in fact the reincarnation of her former beau.

P.S. is an
independent movie in all the best senses of the word — thoughtful,
performance-centric and meticulously crafted — it’s just that it actually doesn’t
live up to the quiet hype of its premise, or even the sum of its parts. Linney is characteristically
fantastic, and Grace brings a quiet sensitivity and, well, grace to his role
that will help make him a huge movie star in the very near future. The other
actors, though — which include Paul Rudd as Louise’s brother Sammy, a recovering
drug addict; Gabriel Byrne as her colleague and ex-husband Peter, who still
harbors a dark secret; and best-friend-by-default Missy (Marcia Gay Harden), a
harridan and functional alcoholic — all seem underused and/or arbitrarily placed,
emotional stimulators who drift in and out of the story whenever Louise needs
to be goosed. The film is much better put together, technically speaking, than
Kidd’s wordy, gimmick-driven debut, and augurs for a perhaps substantial and
successful filmmaking career where previously there might have been doubt. In
the end, though, that isn’t enough to recommend the movie, as it just doesn’t
hang together.

DVD extras include a fairly discerning and scholarly audio
commentary track from Kidd, and a collection of five excised/alternate scenes,
two of which are extended versions of what appears already in the film and
three of which were deleted entirely. Of these latter three, the exclusion of
the last — a seven-minute plus tête-à-tête between the two leads — intrinsically
changes the nature of the story. Kidd contends in optional audio commentary
that it was necessary to cut because, due to its setting, the scene’s inclusion
would infantilize F. Scott after he had, within the story, “become a man”
(Kidd’s wording). He has the germ of a point, but the trim comes at the expense
of Louise (it changes the prism through which you view her character) and the
movie as a whole. P.S. is still only
worth catching if you’re a huge fan of Linney or Grace, but watch these deleted
scenes only after the full film, and see if it doesn’t bump your estimation a
half-letter grade if they had been included. C- (Movie) C (Disc)