Chick flicks are so not my cup of tea – but then, getting out of your safety zone once in a while is a Good Thing, right? And this time it was – as this movie ended up being sad and funny and uplifting and just feel-good. In fact, I’d happily sit through it again, which just sounds … O.o

Of course, the message(s) here hit me at exactly the right time: about not waiting for your life to start, that endless plans can grind out the joy of a situation – and besides, you might never survive to that pay off point.

Negatives: Gerry Butler’s ridiculous Irish accent. Please, Mr B – do a Sean Connery and let every nation have a Scottish brogue: it’s ultimately less distracting/painful! Oh, and the idea that a post-300 buff GB and still pancake-tummied Hilary Swank could ever be an average couple! It’s also unfair that our widow wasn’t just married to Mr Perfect, but has her pick of hunks to help pick up the pieces. Movies just raise such unrealistic expectations! ;)

Positives: not being as cliched and predictable as I feared. Feel-good does not have to be saccharine to the end! Also a fab supporting cast, and enough humour mixed in with the tragedies to have my laugh/tear up responses totally confuzzled!

When I left the theater after seeing this film with one of my best girlfriends, there was only one way I could describe how I felt: victimized. All parties involved in the production of this film should be ashamed of themselves for knowingly creating a mainstream film which embraces such a flamboyant and irresponsible exploitation of extremely attractive, sensitive, bracelet-wearing male Irish musicians.

I never stood a chance against the combined powers of Gerard Butler and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in their stupidly charming roles, and was led down a romantic path of idealism paved with sentimentalism like a doomed, sobbing rat following the sexiest pied piper(s) to ever walk the planet.

American female population, you have been warned.