|
PIECES OF APRIL Send This Review to a Friend
If you want to play the recognition game, you can think of how many young offbeat women like April you might know and how closely the film comes to family situations, yours or others with which you are familiar. "Pieces of April," written and directed by Peter Hedges ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape?"), explores the gap that exists between April and her family, and actress Katie Holmes as April is a delight.
Her effort to bridge that gap by inviting her family to a Thanksgiving dinner at the humble downtown Manhattan flat she shares with her hip black boyfriend Bobby (Derek Luke) starts out to be a disaster, but is rescued with help from her neighbors. The family is making the expedition by car and the action flits back and forth between April's troubles and portraits of April's parents, siblings and grandmother.
Complicating the situation is the serious illness of April's mother, whom actress Patricia Clarkson plays stoically in another of her good performances. The illness adds an urgency to the need for April and her family to come to mend fences. Although dealing with a serious issue, "Pieces of April" is told mostly through comedy as we watch this saga unfold and wait to see how April will solve her Thanksgiving dinner problem and how the family will respond to April's efforts. A United Artists and IFC Productions release.
|