P.S. I Love You

 Released Year: 2007

Directed by Richard LaGravenese

Casted by:

Hilary Swank as Holly Reilly-Kennedy

Gerard Butler as Gerry Kennedy

Lisa Kudrow as Denise Hennessey

Gina Gershon as Sharon McCarthy

James Marsters as John McCarthy

Harry Connick, Jr. as Daniel Connelly

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as William Gallagher

Nellie McKay as Ciara Reilly

Kathy Bates as Patricia Reilly

Story: 

Holly and Gerry are a married couple who live on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They are deeply in love, but they fight occasionally. By winter that year, Gerry suddenly dies of a brain tumor and Holly realizes how much he means to her as well as how insignificant their arguments were.

Deeply distraught, Holly withdraws from her family and friends out of grief until they descend upon her on her 30th birthday. They are determined to prod the young widow to face the future and explore what her life choices should be. As they rally around Holly and help organize her apartment, a cake is delivered, and with it is a message from Gerry. It proves to be the first of several meaningful messages — all ending with "P.S. I Love You" — which he had arranged to have delivered to her after his death. As the seasons pass, each new message fills her with encouragement and sends her on a new adventure. Holly's mother believes that Gerry's letters are keeping Holly tied to the past. But they are, in fact, pushing her into the future. With Gerry's words as her guide, Holly slowly embarks on a journey of rediscovery.

Gerry arranged for Holly and her friends Denise and Sharon to travel to his homeland of Ireland. They arrive at their destination, a house in the beautiful Irish countryside where they find letters from Gerry for Sharon & Denise, one asking Denise to take Holly to his favorite pub. While there, they meet William, a singer who strongly reminds Holly of her deceased husband. He asks her to stay to see him after his last song which he dedicates to her. Upon hearing it, she is overcome with emotion and walks out because it was the song Gerry sang to her shortly after they first met. During the vacation, while on a fishing trip they lose the boat's oars leaving the three women stranded in the middle of a lake. During their wait for help, Sharon announces that she is pregnant and Denise reveals she is getting married. This news causes Holly to relapse emotionally and again withdraw into herself. They are eventually rescued by William, whom Sharon and Denise invite to stay the night because of the pouring rain. Unable to deny their feelings for each other, they kiss, and William and Holly become intimate. They begin a conversation about her deceased husband and Holly asks William to drive her to visit her in-laws. Upon Holly revealing their names, William realizes she is the widow of his childhood best friend. Revealing this to Holly causes her to panic, but William calms her down and starts to tell stories about his and Gerry's childhood. The next day, Holly visits Gerry's parents and while there, she also receives a letter from Gerry reminding her of their first meeting.

Arriving home, Holly again withdraws from family and friends. As she continues to become more and more lost, she is inspired by Gerry after finding one his suspender clips next to one of her shoes and realizes she has a flair for designing women's shoes and enrolls in a class that teaches how to actually make the shoes she has designed. A new found self-confidence allows her to emerge from her solitude and embrace her friends' happiness. While on a walk with her mother, she learns that her mother was the one whom Gerry asked to deliver his letters after his death and receives the last letter. As the film ends with Holly taking her mother on a trip to Ireland, we see that Holly has opened herself up to the journey beginning with the next chapter of her life, and wherever it takes her she has the hope of falling in love again.

 L² Scored: 8/10 

L² Comment: 

The movie is based on Cecilia Ahern's same name novel in 2004; though many negative critics were received back in 2007 mainly on Swank's performance, but for me this doesn't affect my scoring, i still think its a good movie :) 

Love the storyline and it really touch me some parts especially the way the dead husband arrange a one year letter to be send to the wife daily and arrange her life perfectly... Lisa Kudrow and Kathy Bates are perfect no doubt; too bad Gerard Butler is not showing us his nice ass instead of Jeffrey Dean Morgan; Swank is not tat bad, but of coz not persuasive enough when she acted like a college student coz her look is a bit too mature for that~

Boys Don't Cry

 Released Year: 1999

Directed by Kimberly Peirce

 

Casted by:

Hilary Swank as Teena Brandon

Chloe Sevigny as Lana Tisdel

Peter Sarsgaard as John Lotter

Brendan Sexton III as Tom Nissen

 Story:

Brandon Teena is a young female-to-male non-operative transgender man, whose birth name was Teena Ray Brandon. When Brandon is discovered to be anatomically female by the brother of a former girlfriend, he becomes the target of physical threats. Not long after, he is involved in a bar fight and is evicted from his cousin's trailer. Brandon moves to Falls City, Nebraska, where he cultivates friendships with ex-convicts John Lotter and Tom Nissen, and their friends Candace and Lana Tisdel. Brandon becomes romantically involved with Lana, who is unaware of his biological sex and troubled past. The two make plans to move to Memphis, where Brandon will manage Lana in a karaoke career.

Brandon is detained for charges that arose prior to his relocation and placed in the women's section of the Falls City prison. Lana bails Brandon out. After Lana asks why Brandon was in a women's prison, Brandon lies to her, saying he was born a hermaphrodite and will soon receive a sex change. Lana declares her love for Brandon, "no matter what he is." Tom and John become suspicious after they read a newspaper article about Brandon that refers to him by his birth name, Teena Brandon. Tom and John force Brandon to remove his pants, revealing his genitals. They try to make Lana look, but she shields her eyes and turns away. After this confrontation Tom and John drag Brandon into Lotter's car and drive out to an isolated location, where they violently beat and rape him. Afterward, they take Brandon to Nissen's house. Though injured, Brandon escapes through a bathroom window. Having been threatened by his assailants and told not to report the attack to the police, a distressed Brandon is nonetheless convinced by Lana to file a report.

One evening, John and Tom get drunk, and decide to kill Brandon. Despite Lana's attempts to stop them, John and Tom drive to Candace's remote house where they find Brandon, who has been hiding in a shed on Candace's property. John shoots Brandon under the chin, and Tom shoots Candace in the head while Lana fights them and screams for them to stop. John stabs Brandon's lifeless body and Tom attempts to shoot Lana, but is stopped by John. John and Tom flee the scene, while Lana lies with Brandon's dead body.

The next morning, Lana wakes up on Brandon's dead body. Her mother arrives and takes an emotionally wrenched Lana away from the scene. The film ends with Lana leaving Falls City while a letter Brandon wrote to her is read in a voice-over.

L² Scored: 10/10

 

L² Comment:

This is the movie which i amazed on how good Hilary Swank is, i started to love her from this movie because of her androgena and good acting. The storyline is good, none of the scene is extra and its so good and almost pull me into the character and i can feel myself in it... A very good film not to be missed, and yeah~ this is the movie which makes Hilary got her first Best Actress Award :)

The Reaping

Released Year: 2007
Directed by Stephen Hopkins

Casted by:
Hilary Swank as Katherine Winter
David Morrissey as Doug Blackwell
Idris Elba as Ben
AnnaSophia Robb as Loren McConnell
Stephen Rea as Father Michael Costigan
Story:

In his room, Father Michael Costigan puts together several photos that have been burned to form a pattern of an upside down sickle with a cross through it. The symbol is the inverted astrological symbol for Ceres, which is believed to be Satanic.

Elsewhere, Katherine Winter and her colleague, Ben, are in Chile investigating claims of a miracle. Upon exploring the area, Katherine uncovers a cache of hazardous waste illegally stashed in an underground oil well, which has ruptured, causing the biological effects of the "miracle". In Louisiana, Katherine receives a call from Costigan, who explains the symbol, telling her that it is a warning from God, which Katherine ignores. Later, Doug Blackwell, a science teacher from a nearby town called Haven, asks Katherine to help figure out why Haven's river has turned red. The locals believe this a biblical plague caused by a girl, Loren McConnell , who they believe killed her older brother in the river. Katherine and Ben travel to Haven and examine the river. There, Katherine meets Loren and has a vision of Loren turning the river red. Meanwhile, Ben witnesses dead frogs seemingly fall from the sky. Doug then invites them to spend the night at his house, since the town has no motel. That evening they encounter flies suddenly eating their dinner, and disease, which kills off all of a local man's cows. Later that night, Katherine finds Doug outside at his wife's grave. Katherine explains why she left the church: 5 years ago, Katherine was an ordained minister. After a year long drought while doing missionary work in the Sudan with her husband and daughter, the locals sacrificed Katherine's family believing they were the cause. Katherine and Doug then depart back to the house.

Later, Katherine dreams images of her in bed with Doug, visions of her past, and Loren. In the morning she goes to the McConnells' house alone, where she finds the cult symbol on a door. She meets Loren again and, upon trying to help her, sees a series of visions that seem to show Loren killing her brother. When the visions ends, Katherine meets Loren's mother who is then attacked by Loren. Katherine leaves at the demand of Loren's mother. In town, Ben, Doug, and Katherine receive the test results from the river which is proven to be human blood. The citizens, meanwhile, are shaving the hair off all their children due to a mass outbreak of lice. Ben and Doug try to get the mayor to evacuate the town, but he and his staff are found struck down with boils. The town then forms a mob, ready to kill Loren.

Reluctantly, Katherine calls Father Costigan, who explains the cult sacrifices every second born in an attempt to create a child with "the eyes of the Devil" to bring them power. He also states that an angel, who cannot be harmed by the cult, will appear to destroy them. He insists that Loren is the devil child, while trying to convince Katherine that she is the angel. Suddenly, a supernatural force burns down Costigan's room, trapping him inside and killing him. Desperate, Katherine goes to the McConnell house where she finds the cult's sacrificial chamber in the basement. There, She finds Loren's mother, who then pulls out a gun and kills herself. Katherine grabs a nearby knife and proceeds outside where a small group has gathered, including Ben and Doug. Suddenly, thousands of locusts appear killing some of the group. Doug runs away and jumps in the river of blood, Katherine locks herself inside the house, and Ben hides in a crypt, where he discovers skeletons and bodies of sacrificed children. He calls Katherine to tell her where he is when Loren appears outside.

Katherine hurries after Ben but arrives to find him dead. She confronts Loren as darkness falls and fireballs shoot from the sky. Katherine attacks and is about to kill Loren when they share another vision. The cult, along with Doug, are shown trying to kill Loren, who was a second-born child. Loren escaped and her brother Brody stabbed her, but her wound miraculously healed, and Brody died. Katherine realizes that Loren is innocent and that she is in fact the angel that God sent. The townsfolk appear and surround the two of them as Doug tells her that God is protecting Loren, and only an ordained servant of God like Katherine can kill her. He explains that they invited Katherine to investigate the plagues because they hoped she would join them, since she had turned her back on God like they did. Katherine refuses, while reminding them that they had sacrificed generations of second-born children leaving a town of only first-borns. Suddenly the fire begins raining down on the townsfolk, killing everyone. Doug tries to use Katherine as a shield against the fire, but is ultimately killed...

Later, Katherine and Loren are driving away together, when Loren discloses to Katherine that Katherine is pregnant and can "hear" her son inside her. Katherine is stunned by this knowledge as this is her second child, which triggers a flashback in which she remembers the night she was with Doug. Katherine then realizes that her son is the prophesied demonic child.

L² Scored: 6/10

L² Comment:

Did i watch too much horror movie which make me immune to all the scary things? I remember i watch this in cinema before, and i was kinda excited. But rewatching this is kinda boring. The scary part become so boring and AnnaSophia Robb is very very de boring~

I feel like throwing the DVD into the dustbin !!!