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 |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Pieces of April
Movie Review: A curious but engaging alternative Thanksgiving movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Katie Holmes plays April, a young woman whose family has despaired of her. She has invited them for Thanksgiving dinner, and it's particularly important because her mother (Patricia Clarkson) has cancer and is not expected to live. Katie is living in NYC with her boyfriend in the kind of grafitti-covered apartment building filled with an odd assortment of tenants that is only to be found in NY -- in other words, it will terrify her non-urban family. The film begins as Katie wakes up -- she's never cooked a big dinner like this before and has a reputation for failure with her family. In fact, her family puts her down so much that you quickly feel sorry for her -- no-one could be that bad, and isn't your family supposed to have an unnaturally high opinion of you, and not the other way around?
Patricia Clarkson was amazing in this film; she is batty but at times her battiness is just simply playing with her family (there's a method in her madness).
My only criticism would be that the whole subplot about what Katie's boyfriend is off doing while she's *trying* to cook the turkey -- well, that subplot just didn't work for me.
Otherwise, this was a memorable film worth watching more than once.
Movie Review: Thoroughly Enjoyable
Summary: 5 Stars
April is cooking a Thanksgiving Day meal for her family. A family that she is estranged from, mostly from her mother, who we learn probably won't make it to next years Thanksgiving feast. This is a wonderful movie, much more so than I first thought it would be. It's very sweet and actually made my eyes well up in the end, a difficult feat for any movie to make me to do.April is played by the brilliant Katie Holmes, this role being one that makes you go, "Wow, she actually can play someone other than Joey Potter." She proves that she really is a fantastic actress. Patricia Clarkson plays her mother, in yet another fantastic perfomance. Everyone in this film gives great perfomances, including a very interesting one from Sean Hayes, proving that just because someone looks normal doesn't make them normal. The ending is great, isn't drawn out, and is very sweet. It's the scene you want to see in the end, even if it's not exactly the way you pictured it.
Bottom line-- this is short (literally at only 80 minutes long) and sweet (you'll see!). Anyone who appreciates a good piece of cinema will no doubt appreciate this film. BRILLIANT movie with an excellent script and awesome characters.
Movie Review: Id like to report a robbery on my turkey
Summary: 5 Stars
Pieces of april is a touching movie, that is perfect to watch when you feel good. it is about a young girl named april( Katie Holmes), who all her life has never been like her family. obviously when you look at her, you can actualy say shes never been like her family. she lives with her boyfriend bobby in a NY apartment. Aprils mother( Patricia Clarkson) has cancer, and all aprils life she never had a good mnemory with her mother. so Joy (aprils mom) chooses to favor her other two children Timmy and Beth. when thanksgiving comes around, aprils apartment is the choice of the feast, and her family travels to NY to be with her. But Aprils oven breaks down, and her boyfriend is out, so in a depsarate matter, she goes around her ratty apartment trying to find a oven, so she can cook the entire dinner, in time for her family to arrive. even though she had rought times with her mother, April thinks of the feat as important, since Joy has cancer and this thanksgiving might be the last one she ever has with her. filled with comedic happenings, heart felt scenes, and a wonderful plot Peter hedges peices of april is the number one thanksgiving classic for the familyMovie Review: Flawed and Very Likeable
Summary: 5 Stars
My wife and I picked out "Pieces of April" with low expectations. We enjoy indie films, but we knew little of this movie. It looked like a good Thanksgiving flick. We sat down after ham and candied yams to watch it with our two daughters.
Although a slow-moving story by some standards, this film never resorted to cheap tricks or cliches. By introducing us to its flawed and likeable characters, "Pieces of April" drew us in from the beginning and led us to an emotional conclusion. We found ourselves laughing out loud as April tried to prepare for her first Thanksgiving in years with her family. We wondered how she would pull it off, and would her boyfriend make it to the dinner? We waited for the fireworks to fly as the emotionally charged, bitter, diseased, and warm characters headed toward their inevitable meeting.
Everything, yet nothing, is inevitable in this film. Katie Holmes proves her acting depth. The screenplay is honest and funny. And by playing his cards just right, the director grabbed our hearts. We hugged on the couch and agreed this would become a Thanksgiving tradition.
Movie Review: Un-American, thankfully
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a particularly un-American film. There are no
guns ( Americans love guns ), or eviscerations, nor
special effects, streams of profanity, or computerized
breasts. Therefore, it will be lost on a lot of American
audiences - as was " Lost in Translation ", a film which
shares the spirit of " Pieces of April. "
If you appreciate dialogue in silence, and meaning in
nuance, please see this movie. The absence of nameable
actors, other than Katie Holmes, benefits the film enormously,
along with what is and isn't included in the camera's frame:
there are very few long shots. Most of the time we are right
there next to the actors.
The finish-up is exquisite, and in its quirky way, a compliment
to the famous Thanksgiving painting by Norman Rockwell.
Be sure to watch the Special Features, especially the director's
comments about the background for the movie, which was
based in his own mother's experience, as well as a true
story about a mafunctioning oven.