Pieces of April
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.49 You Save: $10.49 (70%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.16 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Pieces of April
Movie Review: The Antidote
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this movie at the theater the same day, a few hours after, I saw the third "Matrix" movie. If there could be antidote to the obscure, big production, super-special effects extravaganza of "Matrix Revolutions" it is the simple and unpretentious "Pieces of April". A very funny movie -- laugh out loud funny -- it presents a tangible space and real-to-life characters (particularly Katie Holme's April), all within just eighty-one minutes (actually less than seventy five minutes, if you don't count the end credits). Usually independent films done as sparsely as this one have rambling and knotty plots, leaving a great deal to audience interpretation to understand what has happened and, usually, how we're suppose to understand the ending and what the movie was all about. In contrast "Pieces of April" tells a simple linear story, with a beginning and an end, of a girl living in the city, estranged from her suburban family (particularly her mother, who has terminal cancer), fixing a Thanksgiving meal for them, yet finding herself in need of a working oven because at the last minute she discovers her own oven does not work, at which point she goes door to door in her apartment building searching for an oven not being used on Thanksgiving. There's more to it than that, more characters and situations, but nothing that deviates in any serious way from the basic plot. It's not a film that requires a mythic journey interpretation to appreciate it. But that's not to say that it doesn't improve with successive viewings, that there isn't a depth that waiting to be explored.
"Pieces of April" is about togetherness: "Once there was this one day where everyone seemed to know they needed each other; this one day where they knew for certain they couldn't do it alone." This theme is underscored by the use of a home video format, where the audience is often stuck in intimate and small cramped spaces with the characters, many times the spatial relation bordering on the claustrophobic. I really don't know if I've ever seen a more "pro-family" film (or I don't know what the term means, which is most likely the case). The couple of good experiences April has in finding an oven to use are with families (one African-American and one Asian). In contrast, the single people in her building are not willing to make the sacrifice because it might compromise one "Vegan's" belief system or, as is the case with "Wayne with the new stove", there might not be anything that he will gain in return. For April family is salvation. And family (or even community, for that matter) involves both sacrifice and compromise -- persons connected to their family have to put up with more and are used to being put out more for the sake of others. It's often seems preferable and easier just to say "I'm through, you're on you own", as the mother says to the little girl in the restaurant bathroom towards the end of the film, the place where April's mother has her epiphany. The eventual, inevitable reunion of April and her mother is not presented as a time of apologies or expressions of regret -- no words are expressed, mostly still pictures to music -- but we understand it as a recognition of the love that was always there but not acknowledged, and as an honoring of the stubborn strength in each personality that was always the major source of the conflict between them.
Please do not be distraught by my "pro-family" explanation. This film is not even close to a platform for preaching right-wing conservative views about "family values". You'll find plenty of good cynical humor in "Pieces of April", and many lovable cynical characters, but the film itself is far from cynical. "Pieces of April" is a downright cute film, but cute in a good way. Cute like "About A Boy" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" -- films with screenplays by Peter Hedges, the director and writer of "Pieces of April".
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a lot of action movies. I enjoyed "Matrix Revolutions". But we need simple human stories -- we need more films like "Pieces of April" -- lest we forget what's really important.
Movie Review: Underrated Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Every now and again, a bright young person with a passion for writing and cinema, comes up with an original idea, often loaded with a personal input and background, writes a brilliant script, and secures limited finances to adapt his/her 'labor of love' to the big screen, after signing some known and excellent actors, who are keen to encourage new talent on one hand, and to do something different on the other. Peter Hedges is such a person, and his personal 'labor of love' is this underrated little gem of a movie, Pieces of April.This movie really did blow my mind, and is one of the best I have seen in a long while, more so since I had no expectations at all, having only the faintest idea about it, a somehow misleading one, since it is labeled as a 'quirky comedy'.
Not only was Pieces of April anything but a 'quirky comedy', it is a film with its simplicity yet equally deep themes, that have touched me greatly.
Filmed with a digital camera,the dreamy almost 70s mood, enhances the whole atmosphere of the film, and removes any unnecessary gloss.
An estranged daughter living in New York with a new boyfriend in a squalid flat prepares a Thanksgiving meal for her family. Her oven does not work, so she struggles to borrow her neighbor's ovens (a collection of eccentrics) to finish a 'perfect meal' before her parents, mother, father, grandmother, brother and sister arrive.
At the same time, the traveling family journey becomes one down memory lane, with all its happy and tragic moments.
It seems simple enough, but there is much more:
The mother has cancer, and it will probably be the last Thanksgiving she will have with her family.
At this point (and having a personal experience with this malign disease) I can say that I have yet to see a film that portrays the physical and emotional effect that cancer has on its sufferer so well without too much explanations or dialog, and with NO sentimentality!! It was very powerfully written and filmed albeit tragic.
The mother we feel is still the rock that every member of her family leans on for support, a role that she now finds as a sort of a burden, which increases her feelings of guilt and desperation.
Of course, the daughter manages at the end to finish her meal, due to the kindness of a Chinese family, and after some hesitation and soul searching, her family finally arrives and with a series of snapshots to commemorate this event, the film ends with a message of hope and reconciliation.
As much it is Peter Hedges's film (his first feature after writing the screenplays for What's eating Gilbert Grape, Map of the World and About a Boy) it is also Patricia Clarkson's film!
As the possibly dying mother, she is responsible for lifting Pieces of April from a sweet independent film to the powerhouse that it turned out to be..
All other actors are very good, especially Oliver Platt and Katie Holmes who I believe is not only a very beautiful woman, but with the right roles, can make very good films (and finally forget the debacle of Teaching Mrs Tingle).
Sean Hayes, who is one of my favorite comedians, has a short role as an eccentric neighbor with a brand new oven. His performance was good, but I am afraid he should be careful not to be typecast in these sort of performances and I expected more from him.
What works so well in favor of the film is its length, just under 80 minutes, it does not dwell too much on the before or after, but rather concentrates on the present which in itself with the dinner and the journey is enough to give us the glimpses that we need to sympathize and connect with the characters, and to be totally engaged in their story. (the only other film that comes to my mind where its length contributed to its success was the 80 minutes Patrice Leconte's Monsieur Hire)
So as I mentioned Pieces of April is not a comedy, but a drama lightened up with a gentle humor, a film about love, bonding, reaching out, and most importantly it is about personal and collective HEALING..A must see film that you should definitely add to your collection.
Movie Review: There's a little piece of me in this film; maybe that's why I love it so much...
Summary: 5 Stars
I tell you one thing; a movie about a girl baking a turkey does not sound like it's going to be interesting or even remotely entertaining. In fact, to be completely honest the only reason I was interested in seeing `Pieces of April' was because I had a huge crush on Katie Holmes for a while (that was before she went cuckoo for Cruise puffs) and it really wasn't until Patricia Clarkson got the Oscar nomination for her performance in the film that I made my mind up to actually see it. I'm so glad that I did, for `Pieces of April' is not only entertaining and interesting, but it is such an emotionally connected piece. It was something that proved to be so much more than I expected it to be.
I'm stunned, literally stunned, at the finished product.
Katie Holmes plays April Burns, the wayward daughter of Jim and Joy Burns. Having straightened her life out to the best of her ability, April decides that she needs to reconnect with her family, which includes her brother Timmy and her sister Beth. The task of having her family over for Thanksgiving dinner though, proves to be a little more than April bargained for. There to hold her together is her supportive boyfriend Bobby. Add to the strain of seeing her disapproving and judgmental family the fact that her mother Joy is dying of cancer and you have a very stressful and nerve-racking day. The film follows April as she prepares for her family's arrival as well as follows her family as they travel to see her.
What I appreciate so much about this film is, having been in a very similar situation with my own `wayward' sister, it fleshes out quite accurately the different ways in which family members deal with the situation. You have the father who so badly wants to see the good in April, his eldest daughter and obvious heartbeat. You have the mother who is so tired of the drama and the disappointment that she'd rather not have to deal with her at all. This doesn't mean she doesn't love her daughter or have affection for her. Rather, it's the type of love that burns so much within a person that you would rather avoid the ones you love than see them in yet another degrading situation. You also have the sister who resents April for what she has done to the family. She comes off as cruel and rude but on the inside she is just hurt. Last you have the brother who doesn't exactly know how to deal with the issues. He loves his sister and may or may not even truly understand why everyone is so up in arms over her life. All he sees is that fact that she is his sister, his flesh and blood, and that's all that matters to him.
The performances within the film are glorious, and I mean that in everyway possible. Patricia Clarkson is phenomenal as Joy, truly heartbreaking and real. Oliver Platt serves up one of his finest performances to date as Jim; you can really feel his pain, his turmoil. John Gallagher Jr. and Alison Pill depict April's siblings with honesty and realism and Derek Luke is wonderful, if not a tad underused, as Bobby. I just love where this kid is headed. Everything he's done so far has been top notch, even when the film isn't. Alice Drummond is memorable as Grandma Dottie and Sean Hayes has a very strange yet memorable role in the film as well. All of these performances just further accentuate the marvelous Katie Holmes. This performance proves that she has talent behind those good looks. She captivates as April, really getting under her skin and making her real to us. I felt her every emotion, and when she breaks down towards the end, feeling as though her family has abandoned her my eyes actually began to tear (it really doesn't take much; I'm a tad emotional).
In the end I must admit to being in love with this movie. It feels so real to me, like a chapter out of my childhood. I've been here before and I've seen these very same emotions on full display and I'm beside myself with admiration for the fact that written/director Peter Hedges got it right.
Movie Review: Great Thanksgiving Movie. Idiosyncratic Family Drama.
Summary: 5 Stars
April (Katie Holmes) is a young woman estranged from her family and living with her boyfriend Bobby (Derek Luke) in a mildly run down apartment building on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Aprils' mother, Joy (Patricia Clarkson), is being treated for advanced cancer and may not live long, so April has invited her family for Thanksgiving dinner in hopes of favorably impressing her mother and improving their relationship while there is still time. The family -Joy, father Jim (Oliver Platt), brother Timmy (John Gallagher, Jr.), and sister Beth, (Alison Pill)- piles in their car for the long and stressful trip to the city, while April prepares the meal. But things get off to a bad start when her oven won't work."Pieces of April" was written and directed by Peter Hedges. It's a wonderful examination of family and an engaging portrait of these individuals who are so disparate in personality yet linked to one another by hope and tradition. And "Pieces of April" is an testament to the opportunities modern technologies provide to filmmakers with few resources. The film was shot in 16 days on digital video for $300,000. And, incredibly, the only glaring evidence of these limitations is the absence of wide-angle shots. Director Peter Hedges didn't use wide shots because they are problematic on DV. The result is that occasionally our field of view seems unnaturally truncated, but not enough to detract from the quality of the film.
I was a little surprised to learn that great thespians Patricia Clarkson and Oliver Platt and a young star like Katie Holmes would agree to such a low-budget production, but I imagine this fantastic script captured their interest. Peter Hedges' dialogue is crisp and forceful, and his characterizations are interesting and so genuine that these people might be your neighbors. Great actors, a great script, and resourceful direction can apparently create a terrific film with very little else. There is little I can say about Patricia Clarkson's performance except that she is brilliant as always. April's mother, Joy, is hypercritical, blunt, but a font of emotional strength, and no one could play this memorable character better. Oliver Platt departs from the quirky characters for which he is famous to play Jim, Joy's even-tempered tolerant husband. The supporting cast is large and perfect without exception: Alison Pill, who plays April's teenaged sister Beth, is destined to be a great character actress. Derek Luke, of "Antwone Fisher" fame, this time plays a man who is confident and comfortable with himself. All of April's neighbors are portrayed vividly, but especially memorable are Isiah Whitlock, Jr. and Lillias White as Eugene & Evette and Sean Hayes as nutty neighbor Wayne.
"Pieces of April" is an engaging, ultimately optimistic, family drama that is somehow both idiosyncratic and universally true. Great performances. Great script. This is the best Thanksgiving movie I've seen. I can't recommend it more highly.
The DVD: There are 2 unavoidable previews. Both widescreen and full screen formats are on the same disc! Bonus features include a "making of " documentary entitled "All the Pieces Together", an audio commentary by writer/director Peter Hedges, and a theatrical trailer. The documentary includes interviews with the film's cast and Peter Hedges, in which he discusses the film's genesis. Hedges also does a nice audio commentary in which he talks about the film's themes, story, and technical stuff. If you really like the film, the extras are worth watching. Hedges' commentary may be of particular interest to aspiring filmmakers seeking insight into how to get the most out of a small budget. At the very least it is inspiring on that level.
Movie Review: Moving, funny, sad, and intensely human
Summary: 5 Stars
About thirty minutes into this film, I must confess that I didn't think I was going to like it, but I ended up liking it a great deal. The first problem I had was the look of the film, with an exceptionally grainy cast to the images, made worse by a series of extreme close ups, and bleached out colors. The film never ended up looking good, but the it bothered me less as it went on. The second thing that bothered me was that the set up seemed a bit too stereotypical: black sheep of the family April living in squalor in another town (New York City) makes a Thanksgiving dinner for her disapproving family (loving but sometimes overwhelmed father, younger and negativistic sister, go-with-the-flow younger brother, grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's, and hypercritical, cold, and unloving mother, who is undergoing--probably futility--chemotherapy for breast cancer). Of course, everything starts going wrong and gets worse (April and her boyfriend obviously have no culinary skills, oven is broken and she has extreme difficulty finding anyone who can help her, her mother in the car bringing her family to NYC is constantly berating April and creating a poisoned atmosphere, etc.), and I felt the whole thing was a bit too predictable (which it in part remained).But at some point about halfway through the film, I really started enjoying the film. Sure, it still looked bad, but I started enjoying getting to know the characters, I began to find the humor more and more biting, and I started to want her family to be pleasantly surprised at April's almost heroic efforts to create perhaps the last good day they would all have as a family. I was also enjoying some of the quirky neighbors we meet, including a very helpful middle-aged African American couple living below her, and a bizarre upstairs neighbor with a nice, new stove (played by Sean Hayes of WILL AND GRACE). Things both at April's apartment, with her boyfriend (who unhappily runs into her drug dealer ex-boyfriend just before the dinner starts), and inside the car get worse and worse until everything apparently collapses. And then, perhaps a bit too neatly, everything is put back together again. But just like the characters in the film, we in the end want everything to be nice and pleasant, and it isn't at all hard acceding to that inclination.
I liked the cast a great deal. Oliver Platt (he and NOT Will Ferrell should be starring in A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES!) is as excellent as always, and Patricia Clarkson is outstanding as April's dying and acerbic mother. She is especially funny in the scene where she smokes dope (to counteract the effects of the chemo) and seems to rewind to her youth in the car. Katie Holmes is made to be as unlovely as it is possible to make her, but she still possesses enough wounded charm to make us root for her making her dinner a success. Indeed, her ongoing struggles both against fate and against her own culinary ineptness renders her as quite the heroine by the end of the film.
This film isn't for everyone. It is a bit bleak, and it isn't the prettiest film in the world to look at, and fans of DAWSON'S CREEK might want to see a prettier Katie Holmes, but if one can get past all this, one just might discover that this is a funny, inspiring, and moving film.