Thu 6 Dec 2007
When we were in Vegas last week, Mr. W and I saw a couple of movies: Disney’s fairy-tale-in-NY Enchanted with his parents (I was in a state of enchantment watching that movie — I laughed, I cried, I coughed — it was great) and the Beatles musical Across the Universe with his gamer brother (not my kind of movie, I’m just not into the drug culture, I guess).
We got talking about upcoming movies and gamer bro described a movie about a woman whose husband died and then she started getting recordings and letters from her deceased husband with things for her to do for him, basically to help her carry on with her life after his death. As he got deeper into detail, I said this movie sounds like a book I’d read by Cecilia Ahern called P.S. I Love You and he said, “That’s the name of the movie, too!”
The author Cecilia Ahern, if I remember correctly, is the daughter of an Australian or Irish prime minister who wrote the novel when she was very young, I’m thinking teenage years. I came across the book at my best friend Grace’s funeral in New York in 2004; when Grace was ailing in the hospital with leukemia, she would order used books online to be delivered to her room and read avidly. P.S. I Love You arrived with two other books the day after the funeral, during the brunch reception hosted by her husband Justin at their apartment home. Justin had excused himself briefly to pick up a package that had arrived down in the lobby, and when he returned and opened the package to find these books she’d ordered, I watched his heart break and I quickly asked to borrow them (mostly to get them away from him). He gave them to me, said to keep them as long as I wanted. I think he even read the jacket for P.S. I Love You, which premise of a terminally ill spouse preparing packages and letters all ending with “P.S. I love you” to help a loved one move forward hit probably too close to home for him right then.
I started seeing previews on TV of the Warner Bros’ movie this week. They kept the same character names as far as I can tell, and some snippets seem to match some scenes in the book. I’m impressed at the powerful cast to bring this little book to life, people like Hilary Swank (playing the lead character of Holly), Lisa Kudrow (playing best friend Denise), Harry Connick, Jr. (playing new love interest Daniel), Kathy Bates (playing a character I don’t quite remember as it’d been awhile since I’d read the book), and a personal favorite, James Marsters playing some other character I don’t remember. James Marsters! “Spike” from TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel”!
Here is the IMDB ratings and profile of the movie, and here is the official movie website.
Hey Diana, you still have my book. Have you read it yet?
this and horror flix…good distractions 🙂 I’m going to check this one out. do you recommend the book or movie first?
I won’t know until I see the movie, and that’s being released Dec. 21. When I was first telling people about the book (on the blog) years ago, I didn’t think people found it very easily, but now with this movie, it should resurface.
I checked out the trailer and I’m going to read it first…for sure! I normally do the opposite, but the books end up rarely get read ha ha 🙂
Okee, you have 2 weeks to finish the book!
oh i still have the book. i read a few chapters but did not continue. let me know if i should send it back to you. sorry- i have had it for a while.
Don’t worry about sending it back, I’m likely not gonna reread it before the movie comes out. If you’re done with it you can give it back the next time we meet up, or if you want to keep it and read at your leisure, feel free. Just wondering what you thought of it if you’d read it already.
I want to see that movie too. I saw the trailer several weeks ago, which made me want to see it.
Interesting about Grace… she seems to pop up when people need her to.
Do you ever hear from her husband?
Hmm. I wonder what it is people need her to pop up for, altho I have been thinking of her a lot lately in reference to wedding stuff. (I was one of her bridesmaids to the wedding that didn’t happen…)
My judge asked about her husband some months ago, and guiltily I responded that I had no idea what was up with him, so I emailed him. He replied in good spirits, saying he’d met a wonderful woman who’d been very supportive of his widower tribulations, and that they were engaged to be married in Chicago early next year. I sent my congratulations and gave him an update of my life thus far, and the string of conversation dried up shortly thereafter.