Dear Hilary Swank,
You're a marvelous actress, and I completely understand why you might want to take the lead role in a romantic comedy. After all, your resume's loaded with heavy drama, and it seems you're always getting knocked around in one way or another. It was incredible luck, too, landing the sexy and talented Gerard Butler as your leading man and on screen husband. Even though he's actually dead for most of the movie, his charismatic presence sparkles in flashback scenes (although his character is a bit of a jerk at times). Plus, you've got two wonderful actresses (Gina Gershon and the always delightful Lisa Kudrow) to play your girlfriends, with Kathy Bates doing a fine job as your mother. Irish actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, of the twinkling eyes and smile, shows up as a new love interest. In fact, he seems to coincidentally show up with an amazing degree of regularity. Harry Connick Jr. gets into the act as a rude guy who badly wants to be more than just friends with you.
The letters left for you by your late husband direct you to all the right places for putting your life back together. He has you performing karaoke, going to a gay mens club, taking a picture perfect trip to Ireland with your girlfriends. So what went wrong? Don't worry, Hilary, it's not you. You hit all the right notes as the bereaved widow who watches old Bette Davis movies and sings out loud alone in the apartment. It isn't Gerard, whose delicious dance in shorts and suspenders was a highlight for me. It isn't any of the previously mentioned performers, who all acquit themselves nicely in their roles. I think it's simply the curse of the romantic comedy, a genre I've always had trouble understanding or enjoying. Why are the scripts so stupid, so silly without being the least bit funny? Why are they so full of cliches? Why are the characters constantly doing and saying the most implausible things? I don't get it. Well, thanks for doing what you could to make this movie work. You might ask your agent to start finding you scripts worthy of your talent.
P.S. Better luck next time.
Things to love about this movie: The beautiful Irish scenery, Gerard Butler's fabulous singing (yes, it's really his voice -- check him out in "Phantom of the Opera"), Hilary's fun shoes
Things to hate about this movie: Some spectacularly unfunny scenes, especially the one in a fishing boat in Ireland
Pleasant surprises: The relationship between Hilary and Harry Connick Jr., the ending of the movie (not quite as predictable as I feared)
Unpleasant surprises: There's a nasty edge to the fights between Hilary and Gerard
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