I now understand and have an appreciation for why some men actually take women to these kinds of movies. Movies with this degree of emotional value leave women vulnerable and willing to fall into the arms of whoever will take us. I have never gotten so emotional in a movie in my entire life (ok, yes i cried like a baby). I think you might have to lack a pulse not to feel anything during this film.
The opening scene is of of a married couple (Holly and Gerry) stomping through the city on the way back to their appartment, Gerry inquiring what he had done wrong that had made her so mad. As they get home they have an aweful fight, followed by the best (and by best I mean sweetest and highly unrealistic) make-up scene probably ever made...a great set up. The next scene is in a Pub (Oh yeah, thier last name was Kennedy...hint: Thier Irish) with a picture of Gerry setting on a table surrounded in shot glasses, in front of box containing his ashes. After the previous scene we're already pretty heart-broken over this whole ordeal, and if that wasn't bad enough, we are forced to listen to anecdotes and sad music to make us even more pathetically sad.
Post-funeral Holly stays in her appartment for a month, guarding Gerry's urn with her life, talking to him, watching old movies and eating crap and sleeping (and who can blame her...if my husband looked like Gerard Butler and died of a brain tumor i wouldn't want to go on with life either). On her 30th birthday her family and friends come over with cake and gifts to find her singing show tunes in Gerry's shirt and the appartment in shambles. Attached to the lid of the cake is a tape recorder, as she listens, she hears Gerry's voice and learns that he will be sending her letters in various mysterious ways instructing her to do things over the next year, because he wasn't ready to let her go. HEARTWRENCHING.
As the movie progresses Holly gets a letter about every 3 months or so, never knowing how or when it will come, telling her to do things that, while comical and endearing, will inevitably remind her of Gerry and in turn take a little piece of our heart out and stomp it on the floor of the theater. We are visually taken through thier relationship from thier meeting on led by all the things Gerry has instructed Holly to do. The entire time this is happening Holly's mother (Kathy Bates) is discouraging her, telling her that it's not healthy to keep living in the past and listening to what Gerry is telling her to do from the grave. Holly's quest to move on continues, including a few new love interests, including Harry Connick Jr. who leading up to the climax of the plot reminds her that Gerry is in fact dead and she cannot keep living in him. That throws her into an emotional breakdown and she does what every girl does in a time of emotional crisis...she ran home to mom.
As she and her mother have an emotional heart-to-heart about lost loves and regrets, Her mother reveals that she has been the source for all the letters Gerry had written before he died, and gave her the last one, which tells her that he will always love her, and a whole array of other things that brought me and nearly every one else in the audience to uncontrollable sobbing (no, Im really not exaggerating here, I had to muffle the sobbs with the inside of my sweatshirt).
Needless to say in about 4 months I will own this movie, and probably watch it until I can quote every line. What made this movie so effective I think was the first scene. there was so much packed into it that was intertwined throughout the rest of the film, and even though many of the scenes of Holly and Gerry together were sensational (and honestly a little unrealistic) they represented the little every day things that we would miss if our one and only was taken from us. It also showed a great example of a relationship between a mother and daughter. It was very honest, showing strife and resentment, as well as the unconditional love of a parent. That was another aspect that made me tear up just a little, but the concept of the story itself was amazing...not very often does a movie come out that can make you feel that much and allows you to connect with it on that kind of level.
