Middle-class white guilt only goes so far in Please Give.
Strong performances can’t overcome lack of plot
Manhattanites Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) have uniquely white and middle class problems: They’re waiting for their elderly neighbour to die so that they can knock down a wall and double the size of their apartment; they struggle to counsel their teenage daughter on her acne problem and her quest to find an acceptable pair of jeans; and they’re wading in overwhelming crippling guilt. Kate feels guilty about pillaging dead people’s apartments for furniture to sell in her mid-century antique store. She hands large bills to the homeless people on her street. She offers a container of leftover food to an unkempt man standing on the street only to guiltily learn that his dishevelled outfit is simply a fashion statement. And then she feels guilty about that. “Sorry” is the most overused word in her lexicon.
In Please Give writer-director Nicole Holefcener ( Friends With Money Lovely and Amazing ) uses Kate’s guilt as the centre for her film with the other characters in her life orbiting and wallowing in their own failings. In addition to Kate’s near-perfect urban family we meet the dysfunctional group next door: 91-year-old Andra (Ann Guibert) and her 20-something granddaughters the good-hearted but shy Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) and the shallow cold-hearted Mary (Amanda Peet). The two families interact sporadically both encouraging and relieving each other’s guilt complexes. Kate and Alex are trying not to seem like vultures anticipating Andra’s death and subsequent vacation from her apartment while Rebecca and Mary try to show affection for the cantankerous old woman who raised them.
Please Give crawls at a pace reserved for modern indie film — in 90 minutes little more than absolutely nothing happens. People relate to each other other people get introspective and then there’s some more relating. It’s a familiar formula in independent cinema and it is getting tiring. This is a shame because the actors’ performances are all spot-on the relationships are certainly believable and Holefcener explores some interesting themes — which appropriately enough makes one feel a bit guilty for harshly criticizing the film. But without a substantial plot or any real point the film drags and like the characters the audience is left waiting for the old lady to die so that the story can finally be over.
