On paper, Kidd's earlier film Roger Dodger, about a snide Lothario (played to Oscar quality by Campbell Scott) and his attempts to "mentor" his nephew, seems the lesser of P. S., about an August/ April romance between an admissions officer at a Columbia art department and a young applicant who stuns her by looking like an old departed boyfriend. But Roger Dodger feels tight, finished, and driven by a wild logic of its own, while P. S. is riddled with incompletenesses. Laura Linney is such a fine and affecting actress that she could convince me she had erotic chemistry with a bookcase, but despite her talents, the alleged electricity between her character and her young paramour in P. S., played by Topher Grace, required frequent suspensions of my disbelief. Grace here has such a hard time leaving his arch, "That 70s Show" schtick behind that he plays this film as though it were a bizarre dream sequence from his TV program. He often looks impatient and half-in-character, as if he expects Laura Prepon, his redheaded gal pal from the TV show, to rustle him awake so he can say, "That was the weirdest dream" and proceed in the comfortable universe of avocado and harvest gold situation comedy. Also, the script for this film is half-baked. Many oddities of character and plot, in addition to abrupt and mechanical statements of intentions by characters throughout the film, suggest an outline rather than a finished screenplay. Nonetheless, Linney gives a beautiful performance and there are still many things to like along this film's awkward way.
Review of P.S.
