User Reviews

"Please Give" is an independent, character drama. What I loved about this film was the interesting array of characters that it presented.

The characters that were on display for us to watch were all well written, fully-developed, interesting and funny as they each struggled with their moral dilemmas. I found myself being able to relate to all of them in one way or another.

The writer also leaves enough to your imagination so you can decide how much these characters evolved or learned over the course of the film. As you think about them, you find yourself applying these lessons to your own life.

The lack of plot leaves you wanting more because the best movies are usually able to deliver both plot and great characters. Although this is not one of the top echelon of movies, the compelling characters makes this better than most films you'll be able to find today.

Greetings again from the darkness. If not for a friend's recommendation, I probably would have avoided this one on the basis of writer/director Nicole Holofcener's last film, Friends with Money. I found that to be a miserable film filled with miserable people. This one, on the other hand, is a wonderful film filled with miserable people!

OK, that is a slight simplification, but it is an extremely well written story that showcases the imperfections of people, social situations and society as a whole. Sometimes it seems the harder we try, the worse things turn out. Such is the life of Catherine Keener's character. She and her husband (Oliver Platt) run a furniture resale shop. She carries this enormous burden around because they stock the store by buying cheap from grandchildren stuck with death's aftermath ... and then reselling to arrogant metrosexual types who live for kitsch and cool. Keener spends her time trying to scrape off the guilt by doling out money and doggie bags to the homeless.

There are many interesting characters in the film and this always adds to the fun. Rebecca Hall (uptight Vicky from Vicky Cristina Barcelona) plays the dutiful granddaughter taking care of her 90 plus year old monster granny played colorfully by Ann Morgan Guilbert. Many will remember Ms. Guilbert as Dick Van Dyke's neighbor in the early 60's sitcom. Her key job in the film is to get closer to dying so that Keener and Platt can take over her apartment and expand - the ultimate dream for a NYC resident. Hall's character is the budded flower - the one just waiting to bloom as soon as the rain hits (granny dies).

The mean-spiritedness of the grandmother is matched only by the vile spewing from Amanda Peet, Hall's less than caring and trustworthy sister who is obsessed with tanning ... and the girl who "stole" her boyfriend. Peet's character often just says what she is thinking which adds dimension to most conversations! There are some terrific scenes and moments and characters in the film, but the best written scene is the dinner party. Keener and Platt invite Hall, Peet and Guilbert over in an guilt-easing attempt to be civil while waiting for Granny to kick the bucket. The scene takes on an entirely new life when Keener/Platt's daughter makes an appearance. Sarah Steele plays Abby as a smart, insightful teenager. Oh, and she is also mad at the world and bitter about her complexion and slightly pudgy build (which makes finding the right jeans a quest). The whole scene is one uncomfortable statement or moment after another. Beautiful to watch.

I could go on and on about the intricacies of the characters and their relationships with each other and outsiders, but what matters is that the film is well written and well executed. It is not some sappy, save the world rom-com, but rather a character study of what goes on in real life and in real moments. Plenty of humor, but also plenty of truth. Amazing how often those two go hand in hand.

Nicole Holofcener is sort of an auteur, and accordingly has a following: she writes and directs her own films in pretty much her own way. She's a witty observer of current American customs and she's good with actors. She gets especially nice performances out of Catherine Keener, who seems too often relegated by other directors to secondary roles in their films but whom she features in all four of hers. These do sometimes have a TV flavor. Holofcener in fact has directed episodes of "Sex and the City," "Six Feet Under," and other shows. Like a TV comedy writer, she works in short scenes with moments of pointed dialogue, a specific observation -- a twisted toe, a misshapen breast, a nasty crack. Eventually there's a bit of resolution.

In her last film, the 2006 'Friends with Money,' Holofcener manipulated a set of women ("Sex and the City" style) with different marital circumstances and levels of wealth.

This time unity of a sort is provided by a New York apartment building where the main people meet. There is just one (pretty) happily married couple, Alex and Kate (Oliver Platt and Keener), and a very blunt old lady who lives next door, Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert), whose apartment they have purchased. Alex and Kate have a quarrelsome teenage daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele), who's not happy with her complexion or her wardrobe. She wants a pair of jeans that costs two hundred dollars.

The old lady has two granddaughters, one of whom is mean and selfish, the other kindlier and shier.

"Please give" alludes to panhandlers, but also more widely to Kate's guilt. She is self-conscious about the fact that her business with Alex earns good money and that they are financially secure. She longs to do charitable work, though she runs crying from a center for the mentally handicapped, and her generous handouts to the homeless people on the block only seem to anger Abby. Abby thinks the money should go toward her expensive jeans. She isn't a very high minded or even pleasant young lady. But she's gong through a difficult age. So is Andra, who is infirm and in her nineties and probably not going to last long. Andra's older granddaughter Mary (a well-disguised Amanda Peet), an artificially bronzed woman who gives facials at a spa, has no such excuse. Mary is the mean and selfish sister. Her more shy and more dutiful sibling, Rebecca (Rebecca Hall), does mammograms; would like a boyfriend; but drops by every day to help out her grumpy old grandmother. Guilt, self-centeredness, death, and adultery are going to rear their heads eventually. Whenever Alex or Kate see Rebecca they feel guilty because Rebecca is trying to make Andra's latter days comfortable, but Alex and Kate are just waiting for her to die so they can enlarge their apartment. This is the kind of thing Mary is only too happy to make clear to Andra, as she gets to do when, out of guilt, Kate invites the grandmother and both granddaughters to dinner. This leads to some of the movie's most deliciously uncomfortable dialogue or, if you see it that way, offensive, nasty talk. For Alex what is said doesn't matter much because he is noticing Mary. She's beautiful.

It's ingenious the way Holofcener weaves her themes in and out of scenes; but she also hits the themes too hard. It's a bit obvious how customers in Kate and Alex's Fifties ("Mid-Century") furniture shop suddenly start asking where they get their merchandise. We know the answer, and Alex answers without guilt: they buy them from the children of dead people. But Kate has to go around looking for a charitable organization to donate time to. What she ends up doing, it seems, is giving expensive jeans to Abby. And if Abby's face still has blemishes, it's brightened by her smile when she receives this bounty. The inevitable happens and Andra dies, resulting in a moment when Rebecca and Mary lie quietly and cuddle. Alex has had a roving eye, but he and Kate are one of Holofcener's happy couples. Much drolly specific and tartly rude dialogue has gone by.

But is that enough? I might tend to agree with Variety's Todd McCarthy, who wrote in a review of 'Lovely and Amazing,' that it was "Engaging, intermittently insightful but too glib to wring full value out of its subject matter." One wishes she would take something a little more seriously, go into a little more depth, scatter around her focus a little less. And if the nasty talk and mean people she chronicles don't really matter, she ought to let them drift free into out-and-out farce; or if they do matter, she ought to give them a harder time.

But that is not her way. What she gives us is a keen ear for dialogue, good roles for women, and an even-handed distribution of likable and despicable characters. 'Please Give' made me laugh out loud, especially in the first half. Then the nastiness, first of Abby, then of Andra, finally of Mary, began to add up and the action stopped being fun. Then as dialogue and incidents came to seem too calculated to be convincing, relationships and outcomes became in turn harder and harder to make any ultimate sense of.

This weakness may have developed, oddly enough, out of a greater focus. In the earliest of Holofcener's films that I've seen, the 2001 'Lovely and Amazing,' there is a collection of intrigues, on the face of them perhaps wildly unconnected, that made it fun to see what was going to happen next. This time there are no surprises, only outcomes that are anticlimactic and sentimental. Cuddling with a bitch sister: somehow that was not what I wanted.

I've heard all the clichés about New York, and I have a daughter who owns an apartment in Hell's Kitchen, so I know what I'm writing about: If you want a superior cinematic exploration of the contradictions in one of the world's great cities, then see Please Give.

Upper middle class couple Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) own a shop that sells mid-20th century furniture and kitschy items at prices non-Manhattanites would consider high.

As dramatically interesting is their bid to purchase an adjacent apartment as soon as the elderly grandmother dies. The death watch is the essence of the theme about shameless New Yorkers' acquisitiveness, for which, when it comes to expanding one's own apartment, anything goes. It's especially poignant to watch the liberal, goodhearted Kate give $20 bills to the homeless along the street, volunteer for work that makes her cry, give a valuable vase to a former customer she has taken advantage of, and yet wait for grandma next door to croak.

But that's where writer/director Nicole Holofcener gets it right—New York is full of life's ironic contradictions: Do good and bad in equal measure, feel bad about the bad, and go on living in one of the most glamorous cities ever crafted for the appetitive and the kind hearted. Holofcener treats the issues, from teen age angst to adult infidelity, with a dramatic restraint that allows the scenes to breathe lightly when a teenager berates her mom in public or a husband cheats on his beloved wife.

Keener is a delight with her nuanced, exemplary life, and Amanda Peet as Mary, the seductive granddaughter of the aging neighbor, is spot on in her self-centered charm. The scene in the elevator with Alex, Kate, and Mary is as uncomfortable as any director could hope.

It's all in a delightful, deconstructed New York minute, or so it seems to a former hyper Easterner now laid-back Mid-Westerner.

"Please Give" is the story of a husband and wife who butt heads with the granddaughters of the elderly woman who lives in apartment the couple owns, how things are intertwined and how circumstances eventually gets to them in both right and wrong way.

Cast-wise, pretty good. Oliver Platt is very likable as the cool and flirty husband, with Catherine Keener playing his better half wondrously. Rebecca Hall is the core of this movie, giving a very powerful performance of a doting granddaughter, who sacrifices a lot for taking care of her grandmother. Amanda Peet does decently in her role of a beauty conscious stony-hearted sister of Rebecca Hall. A special mention for the two grandmothers, who were very natural in their act.

"Please Give" is not entertaining; neither will it remain in your mind for quite some time. It might get irksome someplace, but having said, it's because it has been made in a very lifelike or rather natural, devoid of unnecessary cheap entertaining stuffs. It gets funny most of the times, but not ROFL stuff. It's decent enough to be enjoyable.

Overall, "Please Give" is a sincere attempt to portray the life of two neighbors and their twist with life, once they get to know each other well or rather unwell. It's not recommended for people seeking fun and entertainment. Rather, it's a movie for someone looking for a mild funny, mild serious (non)-family movie.

My Verdict: 6/10

'PLEASE GIVE': Three Stars (Out of Five)

Nicole Holofcener writes and directs this critically acclaimed comedy drama about family life and the struggle to do what's right. Holofcener once again teams with her usual partner in crime, actress Catherine Keener, for the fourth time (after 'WALKING AND TALKING', 'LOVELY & AMAZING' and 'FRIENDS WITH MONEY'). The film also stars Amanda Peet, Rebecca Hall, Oliver Platt, Ann Morgan Guilbert and Sarah Steele. It's a quirky character study that critics are comparing to the film likes of Woody Allen.

Keener and Platt play a married couple named Kate and Alex who run a used furniture store that's highly profitable due to the fact that they purchase from children of the recently deceased, who have no idea of it's value. They recently purchased the apartment adjacent to theirs' and are impatiently waiting for it's 91 year old inhabitant (Guilbert) to die so they can take it over. Kate struggles with the guilt of this, as well as her business, and tries to make up for it by giving money to homeless people on the street and attempting to do volunteer work, which she cant emotionally handle. She also invites the two granddaughters of her elderly neighbor, the beautiful and bitchy Mary (Peet) and more plain and sweet Rebecca (Hall), over for dinner one night and she, Alex and their daughter Abby (Steele) all grow attached to them in different ways. Each of the other characters all battle their own personal problems as well (including bad skin, and romantic conflicts).

The film is a somewhat interesting character study but nothing too memorable. I haven't seen much of the writer / director's other work except for 'LOVELY & AMAZING' which I enjoyed a little more than this. The actors have all done at least somewhat better work as well. The film is all well acted and nicely written and directed but in my opinion nothing too exceptional. The film is both funny and emotionally touching but only to a very minimal degree, it doesn't excel at either level. Still it's not a bad way to spend your time, especially if you like quirky little character studies. I'd say it's worth checking out at least once.

Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j95Zjdlcbe0

The ratio of caustic, neurotic urbanite whiners to normal people with whom I could actually see myself engaging in conversation without wanting to strangle them is uncharacteristically low in Nicole Holofcener's latest, which is probably why I enjoyed this film much more than some of her previous ones.

"Please Give" suggests that frequently those most in need of our generosity are those who are closest to us. That theme is most vividly illustrated in the character played by Catherine Keener, a poster child for affluent white liberal guilt, who wants to help others in need but feels far too badly for them to ever end up doing any good (she's kicked out of volunteer jobs for being a Debbie Downer). Keener is the typical Nicole Holofcener creation, a character so annoying in her neuroses that you almost end up disliking the actor for bringing her to life. Thankfully, Keener's performance is balanced by that of the lovely Rebecca Hall, who plays the grandchild of Keener's next-door neighbor and has the thankless job of taking care of her miserable battle axe of a grandmother in the absence of anyone else who will. Her's is a portrait of someone who gives of herself not because she feels vaguely guilty or because she expects the admiration of others for her selflessness, but rather because she knows it's the right thing to do and that no one else is going to step up to do it.

Rounding out the cast of more or less misfits are Oliver Platt, as Keener's philandering husband; Amanda Peet, as Hall's preening and obnoxiously (but ultimately devastatingly insecure) selfish sister; and Lois Smith, in a small but sweet role as the grandmother of Hall's boyfriend.

Grade: B

A strong ensemble piece anchored by Catherine Keener, the movie is a funny and plausible reading of the neuroses of a functional, likable but in-pain group of working middle class New Yorkers.

What's most positive and enjoyable about the film is the desire of its characters to deal with their problems even when they're not aware they're doing it. But a natural striving to consciousness takes hold because they're all just open enough to admit they don't have all the answers. Watching them on a path that ineluctably carries them to self-awareness, and then each other, is one of the great movie pleasures of this year.

If Wendy Allen was born instead of Woody Allen, Please Give would be a result. All the characteristics of a Woody Allen film are present including the indecisive characters prone to guilt trips and monologuing, intellectual dialogue, setting in New York, and dry humor, but with the spotlight on female characters instead of men.

Subtle, slow paced, character driven, estrogen fueled and cerebral, Please Give follows a set of New York neighbors. One set is a couple with a cranky teenage daughter and the other is two sisters with a cranky grandmother. Characters are basically divided between the guilted and the grumpy. Those who are giving feel guilty about it (they want more FOR others), and those who are not giving feel grumpy about it (they want more FROM others). Triggers for their rants include serious things as well as inconsequential stuff; being nice versus telling the truth, a $250 pair of jeans, furniture bought from the clueless and sold for exorbitant profits, an affair between two of the film characters, the plight of the homeless, and more.

While Nicole Holofcener doesn't have the whole Woody Allen shtick nailed down quite yet, it is refreshing to experience a female perspective with his style of filmmaking. Another enjoyable aspect of Please Give is in picking sides with the characters and their viewpoints and seeing how they fare along the way. The main thing that everyone needs to give and receive is love and attention. Faults of the film include a lack of chemistry, depth (cinematography) and consequential scenes (scenes that stay with you). Catherine Keener, Rebecca Hall and Oliver Platt shine (as much as Oliver Platt can shine) and provide mooring points that the other less vibrant/experienced actors latch onto.

If you are looking for something funny, uplifting, light and airy go look somewhere else! This isn't going to be any of those things. This is grim, dismal, sad, pathetic and uncomfortable to watch.

The characters all seem to be sad or unhappy about something. No one is at ease or comfortable with their own lives nor do they seem to love the people they are around. Lot's of anger and depression here.

Now, I could say that we have all experienced times in our lives where we felt the same way; sad, lonely, angry. But do you want to see every negative human emotion all compacted in 90 minutes? No!

There are a few moments that are funny. Very few. Even "Friends with Money" was more fun than this. I hate it.

Please Give (2010) was written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. It's a very New York City kind of movie. The plot revolves around the purchase of an apartment by two urban professionals. (They're not that young, so they're not yuppies, although they probably were yuppies in their day.) At present, they make an apparently excellent living buying up old "classic" furniture, and reselling it in their storeroom. Catherine Keener plays Kate, the wife, and Oliver Platt is her husband Alex.

The problem with the purchase of the apartment is that it's still occupied by an older woman, and the agreement is that she will live there until she dies. Into the mix come the woman's two granddaughters--Rebecca Hall as Rebecca, the "plain" sister, and Amanda Peet as Mary, the gorgeous sister. (Rebecca Hall is only plain by Hollywood standards, and Amanda Peet is gorgeous by those same standards.)

The film has several plot threads moving forward simultaneously, but the one that interested me the most was Kate's ambivalence about her source of income. Obviously, if you're selling any used furniture--classic or otherwise--you have to buy low and sell high. However, Kate is clearly guilt-ridden about making money because she knows furniture value and the sellers--usually children of a recently deceased parent--don't know these values.

She also feels guilty about street people, and tends to give them ten- or twenty-dollar bills as she walks along the street. She really wants to help disadvantaged people, and checks out a residence for the frail elderly and a day program for developmentally disabled people to see if she can volunteer.

Catherine Keener is an appealing actor, and her character is basically likable. However, as I thought about it, Kate's guilt doesn't lead to any really effective action. Yes, she agonizes about the furniture, but she buys and sells it anyway. And, although her motivation to help the less fortunate is clear, she doesn't actually accept the volunteer positions. She thinks about them, and she cries, but she doesn't really do anything. Still, you can't deny the honesty of her emotions.

This is a movie in which, objectively, nothing truly major happens. However, the characters are changed by the events in the film. They are imperfect and they don't become perfect, but they're interesting and you care about them.

As I wrote at the beginning of the review, this is a very New York City kind of movie. It crackles with realistic NYC atmosphere, and you get a real sense of the city. I could almost feel myself walking along the sidewalk with Kate or Alex.

All in all, I think this is definitely a film worth seeing, and it will work well on DVD. My guess is that opinions about this movie will vary tremendously. I liked it, but others may have equally compelling reasons to dislike it. See it yourself and make your own decision.

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.

More of my reviews at iheartfilms.weebly.com

Nicole Holofcener explores intertwining stories between and around two families who live in a New York apartment building. There's a very opinionated, blunt and sometimes bitter 91 year old grandmother, Andra, who is regularly visited by her youngest granddaughter Rebecca while the self-centred elder one, Mary (who is put off by her grandmother's bluntness) obsesses about herself (especially her looks). Little does she know that she's pretty much just like Andra. Next door to Andra lives a married couple Kate and Alex and their teenage daughter Abby who complains about her looks. Kate and Alex, who own Andra's apartment, plan to extend it to their own after her death. Kate overwhelmed by the less privileged, always gives out money to the homeless (much against her daughter's wish) but at the same time she wants to do more charitable work. Yet, when the time comes she is just too overwhelmed to go a step further and runs out from the center of the mentally handicapped.

'Please Give' looks at the stories of these characters with humour. Holofcener touches themes like death, guilt, self-centredness, adultery and commitment but it's all done with a well balanced touch of comedy. Her writing is solid. It has a whimsical narrative similar to some of Woody Allen's best works. The intense sequences are subtle and effective. The characters are well-defined and recognizable. They are cleverly written with a comic touch.

It is also a well crafted little film. The sets are simple yet detailed. The cinematography is first rate. The editing is fine.

'Please Give' is loaded with excellent performances. Catherine Keener and Rebecca Hall brilliantly downplay their parts. Amanda Peet is spot on as the bitchy Mary. Oliver Platt performs naturally. Lois Smith is a delight and Ann Morgan Guilbert is very good.

'Please Give' has heart, humour and substance. Thankfully, it is lacking in the kind of melodrama that has become an ingredient in many Hollywood films of this genre. Overall, Nicole Holofcener has made a fine little film that explores the (direct and indirect but significant) effects people have on others. I hope she keeps giving us little gems like this.

In "Please Give", Holofcener standby Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt play a married couple who buy dead people's furniture from their surviving children and then sell it on. They're waiting for the old woman in the apartment below them to die so they can buy it. Her granddaughters, played by Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet, are also kind of just waiting around for the old lady to die, because she's not exactly pleasant.

Keener and Platt have a moody and insecure daughter played by Sarah Steele, in the first role I ever saw her in. I love Sarah Steele. She plays an insecure adolescent here because she doesn't have razor sharp cheekbones and collarbones. Instead she's merely adorable. She gets a facial which makes her face all red.

Nicole Holofcener has said that the character Catherine Keener plays in "Please Give" is the one most closely based on her. She's someone who is guilty about her upper middle-class background and goes out of her way to do the right thing, sometimes embarrassing herself in the process, like when she tries to give a black man food because she assumes he is homeless, when he's just waiting for a table.

This character is the quintessential Holofcener character. She's a good person, trying to do the right thing, but not always getting it right. Her imperfections only make us like her more because we can see how much she's trying.

Todd Solondz and Holofcener both make indie dramedies about the relationships between upper middle class people, but Holofcener's movies aren't unremittingly dark and depressing like Solondz's. As such, I'd never really compared them before. The comparison seemed superficial at best. With "Please Give", though, it really seemed valid. Holofcener's movie has moments like the aforementioned scene with the not-homeless-man that open the door for some real darkness and human frailty made bare. Holofcener lets you realise that door is open, but doesn't go through it. Solondz shoves you through.

Maybe it's a sign I'm getting older. I used to worship Solondz, but now I am really grateful for Holofcener. There's almost something spiritual with her movies. They remind you we all fall short, but it's the trying that's beautiful, and we all need to try.

There's not much else to say about "Please Give". I think I've described every memorable scene. You know what to expect from a Nicole Holofcener movie. They're like cinematic comfort food. They don't shy away from realities of life, and in doing so they help you accept them. It's like an antidote to those "feel good" Hollywood movies, which only ever make me feel worse.

Though I guess the director would be grateful and happy if you liked her movie. And she got a stellar cast here. And it does make a difference here. Having all those great women playing in it, is elevating the movie quite a bit. Of course the director does try to incorporate as many great turns from women as she can.

And she delivers. The drama is good and believable, with quite a few real awkward moments and characters that are more than believable. Art imitating life sort of, if you will. If you like small movies, that do feed of those things, this is the one for you to watch. It might not be perfect, but it is very good indeed. The director is one to watch out for.

"On the other side of the spectrum, there are Mary (an acerbic Peet goes for the kill) and Rebecca (Hall, wondrously expressive in her more underplayed, emotive modus operandi), the granddaughters of Andra and her caretakers, both single and fancy-free, the former is a cold-heartedly blunt hypocrite (she will not admit her radiant tan is achieved from a sun-bed, but has no hesitation to be catty about everyone else's peccadillos) and the latter is a self-effacing and warmhearted angel, but guess which one does Abby find as a cool role model to emulate? The sharp irony and unsentimental rumination are Holofcener's claims to fame, and PLEASE GIVE is illuminating in alerting us to inspect our own contradictory behavior patterns, for that effect alone, Holofcener's sensibility and intellect should be drawn onto a bigger scope to shine and dazzle."

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks

If you view people as case studies in arrested development, then everyone has an issue, and everyone has a story. It's how each deals with his or her issue that makes things interesting in life. And when those issues interrelate to family dynamics, things can get down right convoluted, both as tragic and comic. "Please Give" is such a vehicle. Everyone's issue is not only personal but becomes a family matter at some level. And in the end there is some truth to the concept that blood is thicker than water. Like the movie "Crash" we see how seemingly random personal issues bounce off of the others in our lives, how we react to the consequences given our relative family dynamics, and how we may move on. In the center of this mini-maelstrom is Kate, whose issue of guilt appears to be the nucleus of all matters. Everything seems to spread out from there, and like a galaxy in the distant sky, things coalesce or spin off into directions brilliantly. As usual, whoever makes up the trailer for this tidy package misdirects us completely, which is why I hate trailers.....

"You're a good person."

Please Give is a solid indie drama about two families: an unpleasant elderly woman and the two grown grandchildren that she raised, and a husband, wife and daughter in the apartment across the hall who have purchased the old lady's apartment with intentions or expanding their own after her death. The story deals with themes like guilt and strained family ties, but it's not overly somber or morose. There are touches of humor and levity sprinkled liberally throughout, and it's a quite pleasant film, overall.

The  brightest spots of the uniformly good cast were Amanda Peet, Rebecca Hall, and Oliver Platt. All three of them made me sit up and take notice at the fine acting they were doing in roles that required some real nuance. Kudos to the whole cast, but especially those three.

I like watching movies like this from time to time, because they're not overly emotionally demanding, but they still give you more of an experience than your average action, mystery or thriller flick. Good film; recommended.

Please Give (2010)

A sharp, witty, touching, slice-of-life gem of a movie directed by Nicole Holofcener. It has some of the trappings of an Indie movie, with very ordinary people taking the leads and quirky low budget filming and music to make it undramatic.

But the cast is top notch. The leads--there are four of them in a well balanced ensemble--are nothing if not believable. Maybe most impressive as an actress is Rebecca Hall, who played Vicky in "Vicky, Christina, Barcelona," completely transforming herself into an awkward, kindly, thoughtful and slightly whining young woman. Playing her sister is a hardened and unlikable Amanda Peet, who also has a Woody Allen feather in her cap, "Melinda, Melinda."

Then there is a moderne era antique store couple, Catherine Keener (a regular in the director's films) and Oliver Platt, a comfortable couple who buy their antiques people who have just had a relative with an apartment full of stuff die. Yes, there is some black humor, hilarious stuff, and there are layers of contemporary New York life with its superficial and materialist angst, and charm. As events compound, usually with conviction, the characters become more rounded and intriguing. And sympathetic. By the end, you feel for everyone, whatever their weird and sometimes selfish cores.

If the movie seems like a cross between Sex and the City and Six Feet Under, it's not a surprise--Holofcener has directed episodes from both series. Throw in her early apprenticeship under Woody Allen, and you get the humor as well as the high standards of writing and directing, combined, that Allen inspires. "Please Give" is slight, somehow, in its intentions. It takes a view of life that isn't so strange really, and where nothing all that unusual happens--the weirdness is just a reminder that we all have weirdness in our lives--and it makes it salient. That's the magic overall, lifting everyday traits into the light where they matter. Or matter differently. With a laugh.

Don't miss it!

Karma was once a foreign word in English, it remains a foreign concept. Generally it is depicted as a sort of yo-yo, when in fact it is probably some askew aspect of string theory. An 11th dimension connection between disparate people, times and events.

This film worked for me perhaps better than other viewers. While there were some treacly sentiments, how can I not like a film rooted in questions like:

How come I am not a better person even when I try?

How much did it cost to make (or buy from a bereaved relative) this thing?

Whatever happened to the Roches?

Hey, I had not heard their Moonswept album, did not even know they reunited. Their cover of Paranoid Larry's "No Shoes", which you can listen to at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh2T7Q2LfHs

while a bit repetitive, does sort of parallel the spirit and whimsy of this film. Toss in a frazzled Catherine Keener (is there any other), a flawed but charming Oliver Platt (are these people acting or just terribly well-cast?), and a role for a cranky old woman (not enough of those) and you've got yourself a film.

I just watched the trailer, and it misleadingly puts the comedy completely at the forefront, but the soul-searching of Keener is what made this film a little bit more than an excellent ensemble juggling the urbane and the polite.

Somehow this film struck that spot inside me that feels life is unfair (even when I have a pretty damn fair share myself in the big scheme of things), but even though we know life may be unfair, you've still got to fake it.

And for me it's easier to fake it when the Roches hum a few bars...