Pieces of April

My family Thanksgiving dinner is latent with chaos, a breath away from murder, on the edge of total misunderstanding. But we survive it and return another year because we don't know any better, or amnesia sets in, or these are the only people who will feast with us. Tim Hedges catches my family and others I am sure in 'Pieces of April,' a comedy in which Goth girl April and her black boyfriend invite her family from Jersey to their Manhattan apartment for Thanksgiving dinner.

Mom, played by the current middle-age rage, Patricia Clarkson ('Station Agent'), is dying from cancer, which allows her on the tumultuous ride with hubby and two other children to indulge in sardonic observations about her daughter's inability to do anything right, much less pull off a dinner, to comments about her lovers, including long-suffering dad (Oliver Platt), who patiently waits in horror for his wife to die.

Katie Holmes' April flies to almost every other apartment to find a working stove, but what she finds is a menagerie of tenants, most of whom like her don't know their way around a dinner, much less Thanksgiving. As she figures out how to cut an onion or carry a turkey, each one of us can remember the first time we learned those tricks, often when the family could enjoy the humiliation.

The HD filming adds a home-movie touch to the proceedings, which are all predictable because we have all been there. I recommend the film for its true contribution to the American version of 'kitchen-sink' realism and its evocation of thankfulness in all of us that our Thanksgivings were never this disastrous, just by a hair though!

From the initial scene of the ordeal of getting April up in the morning to the final shots, this was one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen in a long time. And it's enjoyable on many different levels -- it's funny, charming, weird, intelligent, and it has a real honest heart to it that isn't nearly sentimental or gushing. The psychological depth of this movie is astounding; and the characters, though there are many of them, are well realized. It is very clear that this film was made with a lot of care and compassion. With the possible exception of Wayne (overdone by a miscast Sean Hayes, reminiscent of the cringe-inducing Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's), you felt real emotion from every character. Katie Holmes is great as the disaffected daughter and Patricia Clarkson is just fantastic in a very complicated role. Well made and well acted. Highly recommended.

Not too dark. Not too sappy. Not too indie. Not too normal. In other words, this film was just right.

This film blew me out of the water. I was expecting an amiable, slight comedy, serving more than anything else as a launching pad for Katie Holmes's career into the Hollywood big time. But instead, this movie is a substantive and very moving story about a young girl who desperately wants to make a nice Thanksgiving dinner for a family from whom she feels somewhat estranged. It's extremely warm but extremely sad, and left me with a huge lump in my throat.

Katie Holmes is winning and sweet as April, and whether or not you like Holmes, I bet you'll be rooting for her by the film's end. For one day, her whole world becomes about planning one successful dinner party, and her lack of skill forces her to fall back on the kindness of neighbors she's never taken the time to meet. Meanwhile, her family (mother, father, brother and snotty sister) are on their way into the city to April's apartment, whining and complaining about having to visit a crummy part of town and missing no opportunity to criticize April, while trying to ignore the white elephant in the room, the fact that their mom has cancer and may not live to see another holiday. Of course, the conversations they have with each other communicate heaps of back story and clue us in to the family dynamic, and we learn that April's biggest critic, her mom, also happens to be the most like her daughter.

Patricia Clarkson has become one of my favorite actresses, and her Academy Award nomination for her performance as the mom in this film was richly deserved (I think she should have won). She beautifully plays this role with just the right amount of sarcasm and wit to prevent the movie from ever getting bogged down in sentimentality. When she finally is reunited with April at the very end, what could have been an icky, maudlin ending instead knocked the wind out of me with its simplicity and honest emotion.

"Pieces of April" just feels like one of those movies that is based on actual events in the life of its writer or director. It's full of tiny details of behavior that make the characters feel completely authentic, rather than creations. And there's a total understanding on everybody's part of the dynamics at play in a family that doesn't always get along and of that tendency of families facing some sort of crisis to latch on to one thing that's pretty mundane in order to avoid dealing with something else that is too big for the individual family members to deal with on its own.

Grade: A

In a very poor zone of New York, April Burns (Katie Holmes) and her boyfriend, the Afro-American Bobby (Derek Luke), are preparing to receive April's family for a thanksgiving dinner. While Bobby tries to borrow a suit for him, April realizes that her stove is broken and she tries desperately to find a neighbor that can let her cook the turkey, since she does not want to fail (again) with her family. Meanwhile, in a suburb of Pennsylvania, her dysfunctional family is preparing to travel to New York. While driving in the road, the relationship between the Burns and the black-sheep April is disclosed through the conversations between her father Jim (Oliver Platt), her resented mother Joy (Patricia Clarkson), her brother, her sister and her grandmother.

"Pieces of April" is an enjoyable and very delightful thanksgiving tale. This low budget movie has a very simple story, being sometimes a mean dramatic comedy of errors, but touching deep in the heart of the viewer. The cast is very inspired, highlighting the performances of Katie Holmes and Patricia Clarkson. The parallel way the story is disclosed is magnificent, developing clearly each character, and showing their feelings and resentments. I did not like the character of April's neighbor Wayne (Sean Hayes), since it is not clear if he is a weird or just a stupid man. "Pieces of April" is a gem to be discovered by sensitive viewers. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Do Jeito Que Ela É" ("In the Way She Is")