Swank, Pfeiffer offer a little winter romance

The holidays are the perfect time to curl up with a loved one (i.e.: drag your boyfriend/husband) to watch a romantic movie. Choose a sweeping epic spanning 50 years, like “Love in the Time of Cholera,” or an intimate tale about how love transcends death, like “P.S. I Love You.” Oh, who are we kidding, these are chick flicks, folks.

“Love in the Time of Cholera”
Starring: Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Hector Elizondo, Liev Schreiber, Laura Harring, John Leguizamo
Director: Mike Newell
Story: Based on the award-winning novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Bardem stars as Florentino Ariza. As a boy, he falls in love with Fermina Daza (Mezzogiorno), but when she rejects him in favor of a wealthy doctor (Bratt), he spends the next five decades having affairs in an attempt to cure his broken heart.
Buzz: It’s tough to bring a Latin American epic novel to the screen — just ask Meryl Streep who starred in the dreadful “The House of the Spirits” (based on Isabel Allende’s novel). Fifty years seems like an awful lot to cram into one movie — and as with “Spirits” a non-Latin director, Newell (“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”) is taking the helm. The strength here is Bardem, who may have an award-worthy year with his work in “No Country for Old Men.”
Web site: NA
Release date: Nov. 16

“P.S. I Love You”

Warner Bros

Starring: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Gina Gershon, Lisa Kudrow, Harry Connick, Jr., Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kathy Bates, James Marsters
Director: Richard LaGravenese
Story: Holly Kennedy (Swank) is a young widow who discovers that her late husband (Butler) left her 10 messages intended to help ease her grief. Holly’s mom (Bates) and her best friends (Kudrow, Gershon) worry that the messages are tying Holly to the past. They join her on her journey of self re-discovery.  
Buzz: Wow, this film screams cheesy chick flick — you can bet that there will be some impromptu dancing in pajamas. LaGravenese previously directed Swank in “Freedom Writers.” Swank tends to do better in super serious roles (“Million Dollar Baby”). Butler (“300”) plays against type here as the sensitive, albeit deceased, man.
Web site: http://psiloveyoumovie.warnerbros.com/
Release date: Dec. 21

“The Perfect Holiday”

AFP - Getty Images

Starring: Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, Queen Latifah, Terrence Howard
Director: Lance Rivera
Story: A little girl turns to a department store Santa (Chestnut) with the hope that he will find a new husband for her divorced mom (Union). But perhaps Santa himself will make the perfect mate for mom.
Buzz: This is a bit of a play on “Miracle on 34^th Street,” except that the miracle here is that a fake Santa may make a great husband and father. Director Rivera is the man behind 2004’s “The Cookout.” Union always seems way too talented for the dopey movies in which she’s cast. This is your basic piece of holiday fluff.
Web site: http://www.theperfectholidaymovie.com/
Release date: Dec. 12

“I Could Never Be Your Woman”

Freestyle Releasing

Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Paul Rudd, Tracey Ullman, Fred Willard, Henry Winkler, Jon Lovitz
Director: Amy Heckerling
Story: Rosie (Pfeiffer) is a television producer and mom who falls for a much younger man Adam (Rudd). Meanwhile, her daughter (Ronan) struggles with romantic difficulties of her own. Ullman costars as Mother Nature, who interferes in the lives of all the women.
Buzz: This film was supposed to come out in February, then March, and then was pushed to June — and now here it sits in November. It’s hard not to get the sense that the studio isn’t sure what to do with it. Since his role in Heckerling’s “Clueless,” Rudd (“Knocked Up”) has evolved into an off-beat leading man (and one of Judd Apatow’s go-to funny guys). If there’s one reason to go see this studio football, Rudd’s it.
Web site: NA
Release date: Nov. 9

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