Review of Please Give

This is very nicely made film centered around a group of New Yorkers whose lives connect. There is the elderly Nan and her her two bickering grand daughters. Next to the Nan's apartment is a a couple who buy furniture from the deceased and sell it marked up and their teenage daughter. Having brought the Nan's apartment to knock through when she dies, they encounter the grand daughters which leads to a connection for the daughter and for the husband.

The film has a very slight plot, very little really happens, but what makes this interesting are the characters. They are all fascinating with their various traits good and bad. The cast are all excellent, with a very fine performance from Catherine Keener. The film has some fine moments as the characters dwell on life and death, why some deal with events better than others or that sometimes people need to hear one thing even if it's not true or perhaps to close to the truth. This provides some sad and funny moments, many from the Nan, Andra who is often caustic with her viewpoints.

It is also a film that never gets bogged down in the potential sentimentality of death even though death hangs in the air. The characters are just ordinary people, some of whom act slightly oddly, but never too strangely to make them just weird. In fact they simply show the variety everyday people have.

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