Film Number 38 – Please Give
An independent comedy today directed by Nicole Holofcener who made 2006’s Friends with Money. Now I didn’t see that film but money seems to be a very big theme for this director, Please Give is essentially a movie all about the many types of white guilt that can exist. Kate (Catherine Keneer) and Alex (Oliver Platt) run a furniture store in New York where they buy used stuff at estate sales then research the piece and hike up the price astronomically. Even with this successful enterprise Kate is very wary about giving her angry teen daughter Abby (Sarah Steele) horrendous sums of money like other well off parents. To make herself feel a bit better Kate does her best to help homeless people out, gives to charities and constantly tries to help at youth groups and just general be a decent person. To further add to their entrepreneurial actions Kate and Alex decide to buy their neighbors’ apartment to knock through and create a luxury place. The only catch is that the tenant, a bitter angry old women called Andra, will not leave the apartment until she dies. Her health has been deteriorating for years and she has been helped by her granddaughter Rebecca (Rebecca Hall). Rebecca spends her days working as a breast cancer reduction technologist in a very depressing clinic; she seems full of good ethics and morals and spends her lonely days caring for her miserable grandmother. Her sister Mary (Amanda Peet) is nearly the complete antithesis, self centered, mean, cruel, bitter, rude and unaware.
As the film progresses the overweight aging Oliver Platt cheats on his wife and begins an affair with the gorgeous young Amanda Peet. Now this is a pretty hard jump to make in this plot, they try to give Peet some motivation for the affair by having her recently dumped by a boyfriend but it is very hard to believe that she has no better option then having an affair with this man. This is really the only part that’s a bit hard to grasp, the good thing however is that Platt doesn’t really have a clue why he is having the affair. This is a real strength of the film, it could easily be clichéd if they had a horribly dysfunctional marriage and home life but this family actually seems very happy and it makes the predicament all the more realistic and confusing.
The whole film is full of bittersweet and touching moments that are hard for me in my caveman state of being to touch on why I felt the pain or the joy. There is a particular instance where Catherine Keneer goes to volunteer with a group dealing with disabled children, whilst there she is unable to contain herself and bursts into tears, rather than have her tell us why she is sad all the power is allowed to come from the actions. Rebecca Hall’s beautiful and depressed character is allowed to come out of her shell and find a boyfriend and feel more confident, this is handled so beautifully and sweetly as well and never gets artificial. Whilst Peet’s character begins the way she started with very little personal growth, certainly makes a change from the barrage of epiphanies within the film and cinema in general.
The film moves at a decent pace and when the old lady finally dies it’s very refreshing that we are not dragged down in this moment for eternity and the story moves on in a timely fashion. Of course the film defiantly aims to throw a great deal of questions, points and messages to the viewer, nothing really hit me very hard and I actually think that’s a good thing, I’m getting kinda sick of films that revel in making the audience feel as guilty as possible for whatever privileges that they have in life. The film also shares an important message that shitty things are always going to be in the world and that we can’t solve them all, we get to see Kate’s life ruled by her guilt, every action she makes is marred with its effect on others, she is constantly stressed and worried all the time.
A real character study here, not something where I can really talk about dynamic filmmaking, it serves its purpose as a thought provoking and entertaining little indie comedy. Whilst I do not agree with every single message put forward I can really respect the ways that it does show the ideas in a subtle respectful nature. Acting is all very high quality honestly can’t pull a bad name out of the hat, everyone put their best in and made it work.
7 out of 10
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