Visit the Movie Wave Store | Movie Wave Home | Reviews by Title | Reviews by Composer | Contact me

P.S. I LOVE YOU
Standard (but really enjoyable) chick-flick score
 A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Music composed by
JOHN POWELL

Rating
* * *



Performed by
THE SYDNEY SCORING ORCHESTRA
conducted by
BRETT WEYMARK

Additional music
JOHN ASHTON THOMAS
Orchestration
LAURA BISHOP
JAMES K. LEE
JESSICA WELLS

Engineer
SHAWN MURPHY
Music Editor
CARL KALLER
Produced by
JOHN POWELL

Album running time
50:00

Released by
VARESE SARABANDE
Catalog number
VSD-6891

Album cover copyright (c) 2008 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.; review copyright (c) 2008 James Southall

A chick flick to end all chick flicks (according to my girlfriend, anyway), P.S. I Love You sees a young widow receive a number of communications from her late husband, written before he died and setting her off on a number of adventures to ease the pain of his passing.  I'm not entirely convinced myself, but given the biological difference between me and the target audience I suppose it doesn't really matter what I think.  Of course, it matters a great deal what I think of the score - words can barely describe the importance of the two paragraphs which will follow - and I must start by saying it's great that composer John Powell has done something a little different from most of his recent fare, in light of comments I've made in the last couple of his albums I've reviewed.

Having said that, this is a score which is more defined by the album cover than by the composer - the credit could say "Music by David Arnold" or "Music by Hans Zimmer" or anything in between and I don't suppose it would actually sound very different.  Light, fluffy orchestral pop music, with guitars and synths finding their way in, is the order of the day - the tunes are catchy, the playing professional, the recording favourable - it's a very pleasant album.

The important question is then, I guess - what does this score have to offer to people who already own several albums for romantic comedies?  The answer is probably - nothing.  It's lovely music, it really is, and if you don't already own a few film score albums with pictures of people kissing on the front and the film's title in mock-handwritten script, you would certainly do well to check it out.  Otherwise, perhaps it's most-suited to Powell diehards and to those who genuinely do love this sort of light score - the classic case of a score about which I can find nothing bad to say, but to which I find it hard to believe I will ever listen.

Tracks

  1. Make Up Kisses (3:00)
  2. Bette Davis Montage (1:13)
  3. You Gotta Be Rich (:52)
  4. The Cake (1:46)
  5. The Um (2:00)
  6. Puke / 1st Letter (2:43)
  7. Holly Gets Fired (:45)
  8. Jacket (1:27)
  9. Travel Agent (4:04)
  10. To Eire (2:54)
  11. Reading Letters (:47)
  12. William on the Lake (1:23)
  13. Kitchen Waltz (4:54)
  14. On the Lake (2:29)
  15. The Kennedys (1:08)
  16. Last Tune (:50)
  17. Gerry's Fort (1:04)
  18. The Meeting (4:31)
  19. The Kiss (1:59)
  20. Home Again (:33)
  21. Enough (:39)
  22. Somebody's Gerry (1:43)
  23. It Was Me (3:35)
  24. Sis Kiss (2:38)
  25. P.S. I Love You (1:23)
    26.