Movie Review- Please Give

One of my favorite directors is Woody Allen, and particularly in films like Annie Hall and Manhattan he portrays a certain world and segment of society, showing life in New York City and its.... intellectual and artistic communities. To be honest, I think a lot of the negative stereotypes of the Upper West Side and its residents stem from Woody Allen's films, and people who aren't from the city think people from New York are all liberals crushed with anxieties and liberal guilt... ok there might be some truth to all this (and I'm definitely an example of that kind of person, even though I'm not a New York resident, yet...). But the lives of those living in New York, particularly those who are particularly affluent and overcome with a certain kind of liberal guilt, were the focus of most of Woody Allen's greatest films. However, it seems like Woody Allen has moved away, for whatever reason, from the setting of New York and focusing on its inhabitants. But other directors have picked up the mantle, and one such attempt is made by Nicole Holofcener in Please Give, which is out now in a limited release and should be moving to a more general release soon. I heard about this film on the most recent episode of Filmspotting and was able to see it while I was back home in California at one of my favorite movie theatres, the Shattuck 8 Cinema in Berkeley.

The film takes place, as you might have guessed, in New York City and focuses on the life Kate (played by Catherine Keener) who runs a vintage furniture store with her husband (Oliver Platt) that is supplied by buying the furniture of the recently deceased. Kate is overcome by guilt, making her livelihood based upon death (albeit in a second hand way) and thus we see her throughout the film trying to put something out into the world, through service or by giving money or food, in order to "rectify" some imbalance that has been created by her job while also struggling with her teenage daughter (Sarah Steele) who doesn't really experience or understand her mother's guilt. Here's the trailer for the film, I'd recommend giving it a watch and you'll get a better sense of things:




In addition to the main plot of Kate and Alex's business and the guilt that Kate feels, we also see their neighbor in their apartment building, the cantankerous 91 year old Andra (a hillarious job by Ann Guilbert) and her two granddaughters, the altruistic and caring Rebecca (played by the gorgeous Rebecca Hall), who works at a radiology office that does screening for breast cancer, and the less-kind Mary (played by Amanda Peet) who works at a day salon. They both struggle with their grandmother, as she gets older and her health continues to diminish, as well as Kate and Alex struggling as they know that when she dies they will be able to buy Andra's apartment and expand their own.

There are a lot of things going on in this film, and it's not just about one or two characters but rather about a group of characters who are all in concert with one another and the world that exists around them. This presents a challenging task for any director but I think Holofcener does a good job balancing the camera and the narrative so we get an equal amount of time in each character's world to see their concerns. Each of these people has their own life and their own worries and anxieties that they must confront, and Holofcener does a good job at making each character an individual while also making it clear that this is also about a world and something bigger than just a couple people. The one thing I didn't like about the film was the romantic subplot involving Rebecca, as it felt a little bit tacked on and I don't feel like it really furthered or pushed the main narrative and the dominant themes of the film. It really felt like someone said "this needs some romantic element, where can we put it...?" and that just came off as forced and contrived to me. It doesn't take away from anything, but it leave a funny taste in your mouth.

The performances in the film are all suburb. Keener does an excellent job as Kate, really encompassing and embodying that guilt over what she does while Platt's Alex clearly is more at ease with their chosen profession, as reflected by the humor and levity he brings to his role, which contrasts with the seriousness that we see in Keener's Kate. I think they both work well together and there's a certain chemistry and playfulness between the two of them. As I said before, Guilbert is absolutely hilarious as the snappy, blunt and occasionally rude grandmother Andra, and she definitely steals the scene whenever she's on camera. Hall and Peet do a good job of balancing each other out, and you definitely find yourself liking the Rebecca character while finding yourself disliking the much less virtuous Mary, played by Peet. Though she's not as funny as Andra, or as viscous and thus as commanding as Mary, the Rebecca character was definitely one of my favorites and is someone who, like Kate, struggles in her own way to be good and give back. I've enjoyed a lot of Keener's other performances, and I'm also planning on checking out her other work with Holofcener because I'm such a fan. And I hadn't seen anything by Hall up until this film, but I definitely would like to see some of her other work. Though they don't "steal scenes," their performances in this film give it a kind of moral and just center, and you find yourself sympathizing with them and feeling for them as they struggle through a myriad of different issues.

But, above all, I couldn't get over how much this film felt like an homage to Woody Allen, or an attempt to pick up where he left off in some respects. It's not just the setting either, but also the characters, the dialogue, the anxiety experienced by all these characters and, most of all, the warping guilt that Alex identifies as you see in the trailer. I'm a big fan of guilt and particularly this kind of... liberal guilt that I also experience and can identify with. But it's something that is very real to me and that I can relate to and so I think I enjoyed this moving just a little bit more. It's funny, sad and true and often all at the same time, and I think that this film can hit all those notes reflects the writing and direction of Holofcener. She creates a world that does reflect what many of us experience, a balance of the good and the bad, the funny and the serious, and that mix comes out truthfully and makes this a good film. It received great reviews from Peter Travers and Roger Ebert and is doing pretty well on Rotten Tomatoes. It also reminds me, in some strange way, of a film I saw around this time last year-- Away We Go. But Please Give is a much more authentic film, I think, and it comes off as a more authentic product of the world and the way things are today. Holofcener picks up where Woody Allen left off (his newer films don't really focus on stories such as these) and Please Give deserves a place amongst those films of his, the ones that examines our modern anxieties and concerns over life, death and love. It's definitely a summer film worth checking out, and here's the list of where Please Give is currently showing or where it will be showing when it is given a wider release. When it comes to your town or city, check it out.