Please Give – A Sony Pictures’ Release

http://www.sonyclassics.com/pleasegive/

DVD Release Date: October 19th, 2010

Rated 14A for coarse language, sexual content and nudity

Running time: 90 minutes

 

Nicole Holofcener (dir.)

 

Nicole Holofcener (writer)

 

Marcelo Zarvos (music)

 

Catherine Keener as Kate

Amanda Peet as Mary

Oliver Platt as Alex

Rebecca Hall as Rebecca

Sarah Steele as Abby

Ann Guilbert as Andra

 

Our reviews below:

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Please Give DVD Review By John C.

**1/2 (out of 4)

Kate (Catherine Keener) and her husband Alex (Oliver Platt) run a successful furniture store where they sell items picked up at estate fairs.  Living in Manhattan with their teenage daughter, they’re waiting for their elderly neighbour Andra (Ann Guilbert) to die so they can renovate and expand their apartment.  The problem is, Andra’s two granddaughters and Kate’s growing conscience threaten to seriously shake things up.

 

Although they often aren’t likable, and sometimes downright nasty, writer-director Nicole Holofcener treats her characters somewhat sympathetically, with their level of problems usually kept at a line that we could encounter in real life.  The tone is sometimes sardonic and it does feel a little long, even at 90 minutes, but the strong performances and good script make Please Give worth a look on DVD.

 

The Blu-ray includes outtakes, behind the scenes featurettes and a Q&A with Holofcener.

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Please Give DVD Review By Erin V.

**1/2 (out of 4)

Please Give centres around Kate and Alex, a couple who own a store where they sell antique furniture from estate sales at a hefty profit.  Meanwhile, they are trying to teach their teenage daughter to think about others and not get caught up with materialistic needs.  They end up buying the apartment next door to them, so that they can eventually knock down the wall and expand – that is once the resident 91-year-old lady Andra ‘no longer needs it.’  The story really starts when we watch the dynamics of the relationship between Kate & Alex’s family and the two daughters who take care of their grandmother.  The awkwardness between them leads to even more confusion as lines are crossed.

 

I liked some characters better than others in this movie.  Please Give has everything, from those caring and sweet, to others cynical and lying.  I don’t know why precisely, but I found Andra – although cranky – to be one of the most entertaining characters to watch.  Besides all this, the actors all give fine performances here.

 

Despite not actually being that long, it feels a little lengthy, and some artistic choices I thought were a little strange, such as the extended opening credits scene of close-ups of several people getting mammograms.  But all in all, basically what I’d say about this one is, although some parts could have been cut, the scriptwriting and acting make it worth checking out once on DVD.

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Please Give DVD Review By Nicole

**1/2 (out of 4)

Please Give is a believable drama about two neighbouring families.  Kate and Alex (Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt) are parents of teenager Abby (Sarah Steele).  They run a second-hand furniture store, collecting items from deceased people to resell.  Their neighbour is a cranky 91-year-old (Ann Guilbert) who is cared for by her granddaughters. compassionate radiologist Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) and detached, mildly sociopathic Mary (Amanda Peet).

 

A series of events between the families leads Kate to rethink her furniture business and begin to care more for others.

 

Please Give is a bit slow-moving and not quite as emotionally engaging as it should be.  But the acting is decent enough, as is the story, so this film is worth a rental.

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Please Give DVD Review By Maureen

**1/4 (out of 4)

It’s hard to know what to expect when a movie opens with a montage of a wide range of breasts being mammogrammed.  The segment is to establish one of the central characters, Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) as a radiology technician who truly cares for her the women she mammograms.

 

Main character Kate (Catherine Keener) also cares for people.  She regularly hands out $20 bills to the homeless and tries volunteering with developmentally different adults.  However Kate’s caring seems to come out of guilt over how she makes her living.  Kate and her husband Alex (Oliver Platt) own an upscale furniture store that gets it’s inventory by attending estate sales.  Death is good for business.  Kate also feels guilty about waiting for their 91-year-old tenant Andre (Ann Guilbert) to die so they can knock down the wall and expand their own unit.

 

Andra is cared for by her two granddaughters, Rebecca the kind technician and Mary, the cold and cynical skin care clinic technologist.  The story revolves around the neighbouring families, some of it nice and neighbourly, some not.

 

Please Give tries to create real female characters that the viewer might care about and understand.  The problem is, none of the characters are that likable.  What saves this rather ordinary movie are the strong performances by all the actors involved.  The dialogue is well-written but the character development just isn’t there for me.  However fans of the actors, or those who enjoy writer-director Nicole Holofcener’s work may want to check it out.

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Please Give DVD Review By Tony

**1/2 (out of 4)

Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) live in a Manhattan apartment with their teenage daughter Abby (Sarah Steele). They make a good living liquidating the furnishings of people who have died and reselling them at considerable profit in their own shop, often to dealers who mark them up further. They have also agreed to combine their apartment with their next door neighbour’s when she dies. Already in her nineties, the neighbour Andra (Ann Guilbert) has two granddaughters, Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) and Mary (Amanda Peet). Mary, an esthetician not averse to happy endings, resents any obligation to Andra, who is not easy to get along with, while Rebecca, a mammography technician, is much more caring. As Abby frets over her complexion, her parents are going through mid-life crises, Kate feeling guilt over exploiting bereaved families, while Alex’s is more conventional.

Please Give might be compared to a Woody Allen film, understandable since the stepfather who raised writer/director Nicole Holofcener was Charles H. Joffe, who until his death in 2008 produced all Allen’s films, and her mother was a set designer on several of them. It is well-written with an excellent cast, but may well be criticized for its sardonic New York script reminiscent of Woody Allen, but lacking much of the humour.

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Consensus: Carried by strong performances and a good script, Please Give is worth a look on DVD, but the often unlikable characters and sometimes sardonic tone will not appeal to everyone. **1/2 (Out of 4)