Review: Please Give

In her last film, Friends with Money, Nicole Holofcener looked at how money and class effected a group of friends it had an ensemble cast who were all equally great but I thought it was just alright. Four years later Holofcener is back with another film about how having money and possessions can make you feel guilty. Holofcener again casts Catheirne Keener this time as Kate a middle-aged mother who, along with her husband, runs a shop selling furniture that is bought from the children of dead people after their parents die. However Kate becomes guilty about this and wants to do good for the community offering to volunteer for various organistations and constantly giving large sums of money to homeless people. Kate and her husband have also bought the apartment of their elderly next door neighbour and plan to knock it down when she has died. However the neighbour is Andra, a cantacrous 90 year old who has no plans of dying just yet. Andra's grandaughter Rebecca runs all her chores for her, including walking her dog, but doesn't have much or a personal life and spends all her day conducting mamograms. Meanwhile her other granddaughter Mary is more selfish preferring to get regular tans and spy on her ex's new girlfriend. As the film goes on Kate's husband starts sleeping with Mary while Rebecca finds herself a man and Kate gets more and more paranoid about how she's getting her money.

I have to say I really enjoyed Please Give thanks mainly to the ensemble cast. Although Catherine Keener is a more than adequate lead I believe it is the story of Rebecca, played by Rebecca Hall who is incredibly meek at the start of the film but grows as a character throughout. Hall has really come on as an actress and I hope that this film will propel her into the big leagues. Meanwhile Oliver Platt is on hand to give most of the laughs as Kate's husband Alex and Amanda Peet plays to her bitchy best as Mary. Kate and Alex's teenage daughter Abby, is also a refreshing character in that she is a normal young person with worries about her weight and her spots. She is also the first teen character in a film, that I can remember, that isn't once caught up in any kind of romantic entanglement. But the star of the show is undoubtedly Ann Morgan Guilbert as Andra she gets all the laughs shouting her way through the film and insulting everyone she comes into contact with. While this is no masterpiece it is still a fine little film that ticks along nicely, has some things to say about family and possessions and provides a few gentle laughs along the way.