PLEASE GIVE (Sony, 2010) D: Nicole Holofcener, w/?Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt. Rating: NNNNN DVD package: NNN Rating: NNNNN
A Manhattan couple (Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt) with an unhappy teenage daughter (Sarah Steele) buy the apartment next door and wait for its 94-year-old resident (Ann Guilbert) to die. She is tended by two unhappy granddaughters (Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet).
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The casual intersection of these two families provides much humour and strong, complex emotion while avoiding comedic and dramatic clichés. Writer/director Nicole Holofcener doesn’t go for big confrontations or clear resolutions, not even a point-of-view character. The result is a highly engaging movie that gives you ample fuel to use in your own reflections on the human condition.
Keener, Platt and the rest of the cast are fully believable as family members. They’re effortlessly funny and touching, often at the same time.
They’re also funny in the outtakes and not particularly informative making-of doc.
EXTRAS Making-of doc, director Q&A, blooper reel. Widescreen. English, French, Thai audio English, French, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Thai subtitles.
