In her fourth film, "Please Give", she tackles capitalism, displaced guilt, physical appearances, infidelity and death amidst a chaotic, arbitrary world that is rather nihilistic, but only in a gentle, breezy, free-wheeling meaninglessness that does not feel like a discourse on an Ingmar Bergman's nothingness, but more akin to Eric Rohmer's affable meandering that is no less understatingly hurtful and quietly emotional.
Set in rumbling New York City, Kathy (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) own a furniture store, set by the couple's practice of buying furnitures at very low prices and put them up with high markups. They are also waiting for the next door neighbour, a bitter, ungrateful old hag, Andra (Ann Guilbert), to die so that they could expand the size of their apartment. In the meantime, Andra's two nieces, Rebecca (Rebecca hall) and Mary (Amanda Peet) are dealing with their own problems: Rebecca is a busybody, working as a mammogram technician, keeping romance and personal life at bay; and Mary, a skin consultant, who continually stalks her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend, and at some point, ends up having an affair with Alex. Amidst all this, Kathy and Alex's daughter, is dealing with her bodily appearance: her weight and acne problems.
"Please Give" sets up this multi-strand storylines via Holofcener's typical free floating, stream-of-conscious fashion that negates the structural device of storytelling, and opts for a presentation of a slice-of-life. The camera adopts an objective point of view, even revelling in arbitrary scenes that seem to never amount to anything, but somehow feel organic to the whole film. And even with this objectivity, it is never unsympathetic, even if most of these characters are unlikeable and even bordering on being nasty.
Indeed, sometimes it's better to start off with the negative to accentuate the positive. With this, Holofcener is able to explore the moral implications of living in a capitalistic society. To what extent does one go to successfully carve out a comfortable life for one's self? Kate's obsession with giving out a lot money to the poor seems irrational, but really an ascetic ideal that she churns out for herself, to get rid of her guilt for her wrong choices in life. It is an inherently self-destructive act, prompted by shame, insecurities, selfishness and self-absorption, that is merely offset by the outer appearance of the act: it is an ostentatiously kind and generous act of giving. Kate's asceticism mirrors Mary's affinity for stalking an unsuspecting woman and having an illicit affair with Alex: the lengths to which one goes to, just to find a name for an undefinable feeling of loneliness and pain. At least, with the daughter, it is called being chubby, and acne-ridden. Wait until she gets older.
All of these characters, just like in any other Holofcener films, feel insignificant; they struggle living in a hostile, unlovable world, and they respond to themselves and to each other in equally hostile, unlovable manner; but there is quiet beauty that is transcendental when one watches Holofcener deviates further more into seemingly random scenes; like seeing an anonymous couple looking for the right furniture in Kathy's store, or Rebecca walking the dog with Kathy's daughter. Like watching an unexpected petal falling off a dying flower, Holofcener's images are delicately evocative, and revelatory in their quietness.
"Please Give" is a very sharp, brutally honest work that is all at once, hilarious, acidic, and always strangely moving, without any need for emotional manipulation or ostentatious dramatic histrionics. See this, not merely as an entertainment, but as an opportunity to bask in its many quiet moments of emotional insights that neither praise nor condemn its characters. Besides, there is Catherine Keener, Holofcener's beloved muse, one of the very few actresses nowadays who can effectively kill someone with merely delivering a cutting remark, and simultaneously still break a heart with pathos for her character.
An astute and interesting character study - M. Bullions - Anywhere, USA
Nicole Holofcener's newest slice-of-life tragicomedy Please Give has one of the most shocking openings I've seen in any film in the past few years, and it addresses a subject that rarely is discussed in polite society - women and the misery that generates from the necessary yearly mammogram.
Rebecca Hall's character (also named Rebecca) is a mammogram technician, whose mother Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert) is on her way out. While helping her through everyday life, her flaky sister Mary (Amanda Peet) is useless in the quest to make the last years of her mother's life as painless as possible. The story of Kate (Catherine Keener), a bleeding heart Liberal suffering from an incurable case of white guilt, and her philandering husband Alex (Oliver Platt) is woven into the tale. They own a store that sells items purchased from children of recently deceased individuals. They want to buy Andra's next-door apartment whenever she finally croaks. Tension, awkwardness, and quiet chaos ensue from that point forward.
Holofcener is an autuer, much like Quentin Tarantino or Oliver Stone. Her films are usually driven by strong female characters, and they always tend to deal with matters that are very realistic and true to the viewer. While they might not be heavy on plot, they're very relatable, honest, incisive, and powerful, all at the same time.
Holofcener has grown, as a director since her last feature, Friends With Money, which I also enjoyed greatly. While the characters in that film struggled with being alone, being poor, and suffering through menopause, the characters in this film deal with different dilemmas, such as, when you see a person who is homeless on your street block, what exactly can you do? What, exactly, is pushing it too far? Is there any right answer to any of life's dilemmas?
Holofcener has also greatly grown as a writer since FWM. While some of the dialogue in her previous films felt somewhat contrived and forced, that's not the case here. The writing is top-notch. The audience may feel as if they're eavesdropping on the characters, which is always a good thing in a movie, for me. The characters feel so genuine and real, that you forget that they're even fictitious, and the dilemmas that they face are extremely realistic, and relatable.
One of the marks of a Holofcener film is the presence of the great Catherine Keener. She is one of the few people in Hollywood who can do no wrong in any film that she stars in. She, however does her best work in Holofcener films, and this is no exception. Her character, in this one, is particularly well written, because of the character's realism. Her character has a soul, and doesn't have the typical, plastic, flat persona that Hollywood usually brings on for a woman in her mid-40s.
While I don't think this film will translate to every audience, I think it's a gem for the summer. It's light on plot, but heavy on realism and insight. It's a character study that I've found more interesting than any film so far in 2010.
A Fine Character Comedy - Michael B. Druxman - Austin, TX
PLEASE GIVE is a fine character comedy about some interconnected New Yorkers who are dealing with their individual and collective angst. In many ways, they are reminiscent of characters from a Woody Allen movie, but they speak in a different rhythm; the rhythm of writer-director Nicole Holofcener.
Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt play a successful married couple, owners of a vintage furniture store who obtain their inventory at bargain prices from the estates of the newly deceased. Their daughter (Sarah Steele) is a typical teenager, burdened with overly bad skin problems.
Wanting to enlarge their apartment, Keener and Platt have purchased the unit next to them, but they can't begin remodeling until the current resident, 91-year old and mean-spirited Ann Guilbert, dies or is taken to a nursing home. Her granddaughters, equally outspoken Amanda Peet and overly shy Rebecca Hall, care for Guilbert.
Keener's feelings of guilt over her business practices, Platt's attraction to the unstable Peet and Hall's deep longing to emerge from her emotional cocoon propel these troubled, quite believable characters to alter their lives...at least, for the moment.
Ms. Holofcener has assembled a likable, talented cast and given them an endearing screenplay with which to work.
Extras on the DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment include outtakes, a "Behind the Scenes" featurette and a Q&A with Holofcener.
© Michael B. Druxman
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment