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DVD Description
In New York City, a husband and wife butt heads with the granddaughters of the elderly woman who lives in apartment the couple owns.
Synopsis
Three generations of insecure New Yorkers are put under a microscope in Nicole Holofcener’s critically acclaimed, quirky and hilarious comedy, Please Give.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Please Give (2010) was written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. It's a very New York City kind of movie. The plot revolves around the purchase of an apartment by two urban professionals. (They're not that young, so they're not yuppies, although they probably were yuppies in their day.) At present, they make an apparently excellent living buying up old "classic" furniture, and reselling it in their storeroom. Catherine Keener plays Kate, the wife, and Oliver Platt is her husband Alex.
The problem with the purchase of the apartment is that it's still occupied by an older woman, and the agreement is that she will live there until she dies. Into the mix come the woman's two granddaughters--Rebecca Hall as Rebecca, the "plain" sister, and Amanda Peet as Mary, the gorgeous sister. (Rebecca Hall is only plain by Hollywood standards, and Amanda Peet is gorgeous by those same standards.)
The film has several plot threads moving forward simultaneously, but the one that interested me the most was Kate's ambivalence about her source of income. Obviously, if you're selling any used furniture--classic or otherwise--you have to buy low and sell high. However, Kate is clearly guilt-ridden about making money because she knows furniture value and the sellers--usually children of a recently deceased parent--don't know these values.
She also feels guilty about street people, and tends to give them ten- or twenty-dollar bills as she walks along the street. She really wants to help disadvantaged people, and checks out a residence for the frail elderly and a day program for developmentally disabled people to see if she can volunteer.
Catherine Keener is an appealing actor, and her character is basically likable. However, as I thought about it, Kate's guilt doesn't lead to any really effective action. Yes, she agonizes about the furniture, but she buys and sells it anyway. And, although her motivation to help the less fortunate is clear, she doesn't actually accept the volunteer positions. She thinks about them, and she cries, but she doesn't really do anything. Still, you can't deny the honesty of her emotions.
This is a movie in which, objectively, nothing truly major happens. However, the characters are changed by the events in the film. They are imperfect and they don't become perfect, but they're interesting and you care about them.
As I wrote at the beginning of the review, this is a very New York City kind of movie. It crackles with realistic NYC atmosphere, and you get a real sense of the city. I could almost feel myself walking along the sidewalk with Kate or Alex.
All in all, I think this is definitely a film worth seeing, and it will work well on DVD. My guess is that opinions about this movie will vary tremendously. I liked it, but others may have equally compelling reasons to dislike it. See it yourself and make your own decision.
The problem with the purchase of the apartment is that it's still occupied by an older woman, and the agreement is that she will live there until she dies. Into the mix come the woman's two granddaughters--Rebecca Hall as Rebecca, the "plain" sister, and Amanda Peet as Mary, the gorgeous sister. (Rebecca Hall is only plain by Hollywood standards, and Amanda Peet is gorgeous by those same standards.)
The film has several plot threads moving forward simultaneously, but the one that interested me the most was Kate's ambivalence about her source of income. Obviously, if you're selling any used furniture--classic or otherwise--you have to buy low and sell high. However, Kate is clearly guilt-ridden about making money because she knows furniture value and the sellers--usually children of a recently deceased parent--don't know these values.
She also feels guilty about street people, and tends to give them ten- or twenty-dollar bills as she walks along the street. She really wants to help disadvantaged people, and checks out a residence for the frail elderly and a day program for developmentally disabled people to see if she can volunteer.
Catherine Keener is an appealing actor, and her character is basically likable. However, as I thought about it, Kate's guilt doesn't lead to any really effective action. Yes, she agonizes about the furniture, but she buys and sells it anyway. And, although her motivation to help the less fortunate is clear, she doesn't actually accept the volunteer positions. She thinks about them, and she cries, but she doesn't really do anything. Still, you can't deny the honesty of her emotions.
This is a movie in which, objectively, nothing truly major happens. However, the characters are changed by the events in the film. They are imperfect and they don't become perfect, but they're interesting and you care about them.
As I wrote at the beginning of the review, this is a very New York City kind of movie. It crackles with realistic NYC atmosphere, and you get a real sense of the city. I could almost feel myself walking along the sidewalk with Kate or Alex.
All in all, I think this is definitely a film worth seeing, and it will work well on DVD. My guess is that opinions about this movie will vary tremendously. I liked it, but others may have equally compelling reasons to dislike it. See it yourself and make your own decision.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is a thoroughly enjoyable film - fresh, original, neatly scripted, very well acted and directed. Alex (Oliver Platt) and Kate (Catherine Keener, who is outstanding in a very fine cast) make their living by buying retro furniture from the relatives of the recently deceased, which they then sell in a smart specialist shop. Catherine, a nice women, has qualms about the morality of all this - though not sufficiently to stop - and eases her conscience by frequent giving to the on-street homeless, to the annoyance of her 15-year-old daughter who believes she is more generous to these unknowns than to her. Next door lives the waspish and gratuitously rude 90-year-old Andra (Ann Guilbert - also excellent) who is cared for by her kindly but down-trodden grand-daughter Rebecca (Rebecca Hall - the best of the lot, I thought). But Alex and Kate have already bought Andra's apartment in anticipation of her departing this mortal coil, so their relations with Rebecca are rather cool. Rebecca's dysfunctional beautician sister is also about, and there is a marvellously entertaining scene when Alex and Kate invite Andra and both grand-daughters for a meal - Mary is drunk and tactless, Andra as unpleasant as she usually is, Rebecca and Kate embarrassed and the daughter too gloom-ridden about her facial spots to appear ; finally she does, bizarrely and very amusingly disguised. It is the dinner party from hell and great fun to watch.
The plot works itself out enjoyably ; I can't say much about it without spoiling things. In that process we get to know all the characters better and we can feel sympathy for most of them. Rebecca and Kate are very likeable. A lot of the film is gently amusing in a rather off-beat way. It is not an 'issues' film, but the theme of helping the vulnerable and how it is best done gets an airing - and there, late on, we learn something surprising about Andra. The interplay between Alex, Kate and their daughter is very human - they all like each other, but that does not stop them making bad errors of judgement and saying really hard things ; and there is a real element of danger in the family for a while. Rebecca's story develops in an interesting and pleasing way ; Mary's situation remains uncertain. Anyway, the film is certainly fresh and unusual in its plot and central concerns, and the film-making is very accomplished at all levels. That being so - warmly recommended.
The plot works itself out enjoyably ; I can't say much about it without spoiling things. In that process we get to know all the characters better and we can feel sympathy for most of them. Rebecca and Kate are very likeable. A lot of the film is gently amusing in a rather off-beat way. It is not an 'issues' film, but the theme of helping the vulnerable and how it is best done gets an airing - and there, late on, we learn something surprising about Andra. The interplay between Alex, Kate and their daughter is very human - they all like each other, but that does not stop them making bad errors of judgement and saying really hard things ; and there is a real element of danger in the family for a while. Rebecca's story develops in an interesting and pleasing way ; Mary's situation remains uncertain. Anyway, the film is certainly fresh and unusual in its plot and central concerns, and the film-making is very accomplished at all levels. That being so - warmly recommended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Great little film I thoroughly enjoyed. If you like films such as "Sideways" or "Jane Austen Bookclub" you will probably like this film too. It has that same feeling even though the storyline is nothing similar to those two films. It is just a very grown-up film, warm and happy.
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