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 | P.S. Director: Dylan Kidd Rating: M Palace Nova Cinemas, now Showing  Dylan Kidd's second feature film is concerned with the conflicts and contradictions of maturity and adulthood, setting lust against love, passion against reason, and ultimately, in relation to the viewer, tedium against concentration.Laura Linney ('Mystic River', 'Kinsey') plays Louise, a well-to-do admissions official at Columbia University. But, unsurprisingly, we soon discover a pervasive depression, largely the result of a lack of love, of both the emotional and physical variety. This middle-aged sex-deprived disillusioned female archetype is proving popular at the moment and as a result is being used notably frequently in cinema. Linney is careful not to overplay or caricaturise this role, but more restraint would have been preferred, with her wonderfully dire facial expressions losing their potency through repetition. Louise's social life is self-admittedly narrow, with her only supposed friends being her ex-husband Peter (a very good Gabriel Byrne) and Missy (played with relative ease by Marcia Gay Harden). Her temperate living is disturbed, however, when she receives an application of sorts from a young male artist calling himself F. Scott Feinstadt. As it happens, young Scott (a promising Topher Grace, previously seen in 'Traffic' and 'In Good Company') resembles in name, manner and physique a long deceased lover of Louise and Missy's. Louise and Scott consume - as opposed to being consumed by -- one another, emotionally, intellectually, and certainly sexually. However, complications arise and the romance proceeds with the usual circularity. The combination of Linney and Grace is, unexpectedly, intriguing. Linney's character is perhaps as surprised as the viewer is to see Grace - who often has a presence not unlike the generic Hollywood hottie - as a vivacious but sophisticated and complex artist involved with a much older woman. Their actions and reactions to one another are quite fascinating. Louise is lustfully entranced by Scott's physical presence whilst her memories of the older Feinstadt nudge her to a level of obsession. Scott is infatuated with Louise, but soon finds himself enveloped in her cynicism and is forced to adapt. These elements are most evident in two particularly weighty scenes; the reserved and extremely well-shot sex scene, and another involving a half-naked Grace, a large mirror, and an evocative run of tense dialogue. As it happens, these two scenes are really the only worth noting of the entire film, which is, overall, best described as a sparse series of physical and verbal expressions allegedly constituting a romance. 'P.S.' is, however, commendable in its rejection of excessive production. It relies, rather, on a minimal ensemble cast of very high quality, and a refreshingly restrained script.  | |
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