Peter Hedges' film is the perfect alternative to the traditional Thanksgiving stories. Before Tom and Surie, Katie Holmes was a young starlett who is cast as April, a kind of girl who flocks to the big city from conventional suburban America. She has invited her family to drive a couple hours to visit her for Thanksgiving dinner.
Part of the film is Dad (Oliver Platt), Mom (Patricia Clarkson) and the two other children on the road to New York City. We learn that Mom has cancer and the family gathering was instigated by Dad as a last-ditch effort to reunite the estranged daughter with her mother since this may be her last Thanksgiving. The other part of the film is April at home in her small sparsely-furnished apartment doing her best to put together this affair. The pressure is on as she faces one obstacle after another, starting with an oven that does not work. We learn more about the family's view of her and her view of herself. "I'm the first pancake," she tells one of her neighbors, "the one you're supposed to throw out"
She learns a little more about cooking from each neighbor she approaches as she tries to find an oven for the bird. Mom has the attitude of a person facing imminent danger and has no faith that April will come through. Dad has complete optimism and faith--he needs to see her succeed. April decorates the hallway of the tenament with crepe paper and balloons. The boyfriend is extremely supportive and encourages her to make the day go well. He shows up in a suit with vintage turkey salt and pepper shakers--the kind that any baby boomer would recognize from Thanksgivings past. I know my grandmother had the very same shakers in her collection.
While this film is somewhat a comedy of errors, it is also a serious look at a fairly typical non-perfect family trying to carry on while dealing with loss. The soundtrack is mostly songs by The Magnetic Fields that add a lot to the entertaining and touching story.
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I remember feeling excited five minutes into this film as though I had found a little gem that I would later be able to share with others. It's a solid low budget character piece with memorable moments and very notable performances, especially from Katie Holmes.
ReplyDeleteOliver Platt and Patricia Clarkson are so fun to watch, even amid their mid-life malaise and dysfunctional-isms. It's not a happy holiday movie by any stretch of the imagination but rather one that takes a closer, more examined look at the ritual of celebration and the reality of happens when all the pieces don't fit together just right. If you haven't seen Holofcener's new film, Please Give - Platt is marvelous in that devil-may-care way he has to make his scenes look so effortless and nature. He reminds me of a heavier Alex Baldwin with a boyish charm and more culturally diverse parents.
Pieces of April works on many levels and is fondly reminiscent of films like Home for the Holidays with touching and effective storytelling with real characters you feel like you get a chance to know inside 90 minutes.
Thanks for your comments. I actually wrote about Please Give--see October 2010 archive!
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