Tagline: Sometimes there’s only one thing left to say.
P.S. I Love You movie storyline. An adaptation of the best-selling Cecelia Ahern novel about a grieving young widow who discovers her late husband has left her a list of tasks revealed in 10 monthly messages that are intended to ease her out of grief and transition her to a new life.
Holly Kennedy (Hilary Swank) is beautiful, smart, and married to the love of her life-a passionate, funny and impetuous Irishman named Gerry (Gerard Butler). 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 (Kathy Bates) and best friends, Sharon (Gina Gershon) and Denise (Lisa Kudrow), begin to worry that Gerry’s letters are keeping Holly tied to the past, but, in fact, each letter is pushing her further into a new future. 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 new beginning for life.
Letter Opener
“I love stories that remind me of what’s important in life,” says Hilary Swank, who stars in “P.S. I Love You.” “I think `P.S. I Love You’ reminds us to hold the ones we love close and never to take them for granted because you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s also about the power of friendship and of family… and maybe not taking life so seriously,” she smiles.
Writer/director Richard LaGravenese offers, “My favorite stories are bittersweet-you laugh, you cry, you’re moved… That’s how life is; it’s never one thing or another, and it shouldn’t be because real life is a little messy. I want to make movies that reflect that.”
“P.S. I Love You” began as a novel of the same name by Irish author Cecelia Ahern, who was only 21 years old when she wrote her book about love, loss and hope, which became an international bestseller. “No matter what age you are or where you’re from or what you do, we all experience love, and when you love somebody, you know what it’s like to fear losing them,” Ahern relates. “The idea for the book was sparked from that feeling and all the emotions that come with it. It’s a story about the fact that love lives on forever, and because it’s such a hopeful story, that made it all the better.”
The story’s hopeful message about the enduring power of love struck a chord with several of the filmmakers, who, as fate would have it, had each been recently touched by the loss of a loved one in their own lives. Oscar-winning producer Wendy Finerman was privileged to read the book even before it was published and immediately recognized its appeal. “I thought it was a universal story because we can all imagine what it would be like to lose someone we love and then have that hope that we could somehow still feel their presence in our lives.”
As Finerman began developing with project, she turned to Richard LaGravense to helm the movie as well as to script it, working from an initial adaptation by Steven Rogers. Finerman comments, “The magic of Richard is that his words are so beautiful but so real. They sound the way we speak to each other in real life, so they evoke common emotions and you feel a real connection to the characters.”
It was while they were developing the project that real life imitated art in a way that gave Finerman a deeper connection to the material. “My best friend in the whole world lost her husband during that time,” she recalls. “Ironically, he had written letters to be given to her after he passed away, so I felt even more connected to the story.”
Richard LaGravenese’s interest in “P.S. I Love You” was also colored by personal experience. He notes, “I had lost my dear friend Ted Demme, and the character of Gerry had a spirit that was very much like Teddy’s-fun-loving and larger than life.”
Producer Molly Smith came upon the book only a week after suffering the untimely death of her eldest sister. She read it in one night, laughing and crying the whole way through. “What was so captivating about the story is that it’s told in Holly’s voice, so you hear every emotion she’s feeling through every letter. You go on this journey with her, which ended up being very therapeutic for me. I just loved it,” Smith states.
Feeling such a personal connection to the material, Smith called producers Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson at Alcon Entertainment, with whom she had worked when she was just starting out in her career. “I told them it was a wonderful story and I just knew it could be a really heartwarming, heartbreaking, funny, wonderful movie. It became a whirlwind fairytale for me because the next thing I knew they were saying, `Okay, are you ready to produce your first movie?’ It was very exciting, and I was very lucky to have Andrew and Broderick mentoring me through this process.”
With Finerman, Kosove, Johnson and Smith teamed up to produce the movie, they faced the possibility that LaGravenese would not be available to direct “P.S. I Love You” due to his commitment to the film “Freedom Writers.” Ultimately, the decision was made to wait for him, which proved serendipitous when it came time to cast the central role of Holly.
Having just directed Hilary Swank in “Freedom Writers,” the director relished the opportunity to continue their collaboration. “I wanted Hilary for this because I had gotten to know her very well and we’d formed a wonderful partnership. Her talent goes without saying, but I also wanted the world to see her in the way I see her with all her humor, her goofiness and especially her beauty. I felt so damn lucky to be able to work again with an actress of her caliber.”
Swank says the opportunity to reunite with LaGravenese would have been reason enough to do the film. “We had such a great experience on `Freedom Writers.’ Richard has always been one of my favorite screenwriters and I have such enormous respect for him as a director. I love working with him, so I would have done anything he asked me to do. But this movie was easy to say `yes’ to because I really loved it.”
For Molly Smith, producing a film that starred Hilary Swank was like coming full circle, as Swank had done two movies for Alcon Entertainment when Smith was just starting out as a production assistant. “I love to say I got Hilary her coffee every day on my first movie,” Smith laughs, “so it’s exciting for me to be producing my first film, with Hilary Swank starring in it.”
Swank plays the central role of Holly Kennedy, a young woman who seems to have it all until life deals her an unexpected hand. “Holly found love at a young age,” Swank remarks. “Gerry was her everything-her soul mate, her best friend, her lover, her husband. So when she loses him, all of a sudden she’s alone in more ways than one because I don’t think she quite knows how to handle life on her own. But he knew what she would be facing, so he wrote her letters to help her find herself again. And through the letters, I think she actually starts another relationship with Gerry in a way. It’s interesting that he’s so vividly there for her even though he’s gone. She even gets mad at him, like when he tells her to get out there and sing karaoke again. But it was a fun journey to go through the ups and downs and emotions of the character to come to where she is at the end, which is, as we all are, a work in progress.”
“I think the intent of Gerry’s letters is to make Holly remember who she was when they first met,” Finerman offers. “I think that’s a common thing that happens in relationships. In the beginning you’re fun and vivacious; you’re newly in love and the world’s just grand. But if the relationship lasts, the monotony of life, at times, can kick in. Gerry wanted to make sure that Holly went back and remembered how full of life she once was.”
Gerard Butler, who stars in the role of Gerry, agrees. “At the end of the day, all Gerry ever wanted was for Holly to be happy. He loved her so much. Nobody knew the hole that would be left in her heart like he did, so the most important thing to him was just making sure that she was going to be okay-not just get by, but really, in the deepest sense of life, be okay. Deep down, that’s the essence of Gerry. He loves life and knows how to see the beautiful things in life, and that is what he had to pass on to her. I think that’s really what this film is about in a lot of ways.”
The filmmakers considered having Butler in the role of Gerry to be another casting coup. Apart from the fact that they share the same first name, “no one else could have played that part,” LaGravenese attests. “Gerard’s spirit and sense of humor and his ability to be masculine and macho and, at the same time, to be so intimate and loving and sweet… I told him it was like he and his character were the same person.”
Butler asserts that the elements of script, director and co-star made for an irresistible combination. “I thought it was a great script and the role was a chance for me to do something lighter but still quite profound. So I met with Richard and we got straight into a discussion about life, love, spirit, soul… Within five minutes I was thinking, `This guy’s amazing,’ and it just went from there. Obviously, I wanted to work with Hilary and between that and the script, it seemed like the perfect thing to do, and it was. It was a joy to make this film and I can’t say enough good things about working with Hilary. She’s just exceptional.”
Swank has equal praise for her leading man, stating, “Gerry Butler is such a great guy; I don’t have the words to describe what a joy he is. He has a heart of gold and came to the set every day just wanting to make everything the best it could be. Our first scene together was twelve pages of dialogue and it took a long time to learn. But it was one of those scenes you want to know inside and out so you can just beat it back and forth like a great game of tennis. We had so much fun.”
LaGravenese says that the scene, which opens the film, was essential to immediately establish the relationship between Holly and Gerry. “When we first see Holly and Gerry, they’re coming home from a dinner at her mother’s house and they are fighting over something he said. I wanted to show a marriage in which they are so comfortable with each other that when they argue, it’s like an obstacle course: it starts off with one thing and then turns to another and then, as the argument goes on, it gets closer and closer to the bone. I needed to establish a real love, a love that was messy and full of passion and disagreement but also familiarity and forgiveness and joy and love.”
“Basically, I think that scene sums up everything you could ever have in a marriage,” Butler smiles. “You get the anger and frustrations. You get the comedy. You get the familiarity. And then just the pure love that breaks through everything.”
“It was so important for the audience to instantly be thrust into their marriage-to be able to tell that these two people have been together a long time and to see their deep love for each other,” says Smith. “Once you’ve experienced that, to then find out that Holly has lost Gerry, you’re devastated for her because you’ve seen what he was to her.”
Finerman adds, “That’s really crucial because we have to believe from the very beginning of the movie that these two people love each other deeply. They have to have real chemistry, and Hilary and Gerry are just electric together. Gerry is full of life and a little mischievous, with that twinkle in his eye. And Hilary is an amazingly talented, beautiful actress. She is one of those people who can communicate everything she is thinking and feeling with just her eyes.”
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P.S. I Love You (2007)
Directed by: Richard LaGravenese
Starring: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, James Marsters, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, Kathy Bates, Nellie McKay, Anne Kent, Sherie Rene Scott, Susan Blackwell
Screenplay by: Richard LaGravenese, Steven Rogers
Production Design by: Shepherd Frankel
Cinematography by: Terry Stacey
Film Editing by: David Moritz
Costume Design by: Cindy Evans
Set Decoration by: Alyssa Winter
Art Direction by: Susie Cullen, Doug Huszti
Music by: John Powell
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual references and brief nudity.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: December 21, 2007
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