Please Give (2010)

The film opens with a mammogram technician at work--breasts flopping about on glass plates as Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) conducts business--then goes home to her mundane life. She lives with Mary (Amanda Peet), her esthetician sister, and Grandma Andra (Ann Guilbert). They live on the upper west side of Manhattan next door to Kate (Catherine Keener), Alex (Oliver Platt) and their daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele). Director Nicole Holfleurer previously made Friends With Money and Lovely and Amazing, both featuring Catherine Keener, who happens to be one of my favorite actors.

Kate and Alex operate a mid-20th Century furniture store. "We buy furniture from dead people's children," says Kate, a bleeding-heart liberal who feels slightly guilty about her business and is constantly handing money out to homeless people. They have purchased the apartment of their elderly neighbor in advance of her passing. They wait for the moment when their dream to renovate and enlarge their modest New York apartment is realized. Meanwhile, they befriend Andra, a tough and feisty New Yorker, and the granddaughters who live with and care for her.

Their daughter, Abby is full of wise-cracks and plagued with a skin condition. Alex has an affair with Mary. Abby bonds with Mary. Kate bonds with Rebecca. A patient at the clinic fixes up Rebecca with her cute, short son. The unfolding of all these dynamics is fun and real in a very down-to-earth way. Catherine Keener chooses small stories with lots of heart and realism. I loved this movie!