PLEASE GIVE
Starring: Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall, Ann Guilbert, Lois Smith, Sarah Steele and Thomas Ian Nicholas
Directed by:Â Nicole Holofcener
MPAA Rating: R for language, some sexual content and nudity.
Genre: Comedy and Drama
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Release date: June 18, 2010
Run time: 1hr and 30min
By John Delia
Here’s an amusing slice of life film that although entertains is riddled with plot tripe and miscasts. It also lives up to its name, Please Give because that’s what you will be doing at the theatre box-office. This Indie could use a rewrite or some key role cast changes.
The movie centers on Kate (Keener) an antique buyer who targets relatives of newly deceased persons for some quick estate furniture buys. Her smart eye chooses only the best pieces, which she turns into a lucrative profit at her Manhattan shop. But surrounding her is a mundane marriage to Alex (Platt), her perplexed coming of age teenage daughter Abby (Sarah Steele) and street people who have needs.
Then there’s the very elderly Andra (Ann Guilbert) who lives next door and being looked after by her two granddaughters Rebecca and Mary (Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet). Both of the grandchildren have issues, Mary doesn’t want to be a caregiver and
feels that it is making her life miserable. Rebecca feels a love and kindness for her grandmother who raised the two when their parents died, but her issues include nonexistent meaningful life. Mixed into all the relationships are the complexities of companionship, hostility, love, charity and an acceptance of responsibility.
The movie actually has a pretty good storyline, but the script has holes in it that tend to distract and forfeit credibility. Casting Platt with Peet as secret lovers is pure folly and totally inconceivable. Platt, although an excellent actor in his own right, is too old and overweight to be a choice for Mary and the personality that Peet establishes for her character in my estimation would not have hooked up with Alex. The sexual scene is almost laughable. And among other things I found Kate a little over the top with her treatment of the homeless while denying her daughter the niceties she desires as a growing teenager.
The film is rated R for language, some sexual content and nudity.
FINAL ANALYSIS: Only if you want to check out someone else’s problems to ease your own. (2 of 5 Palm Trees)