Review of Please Give (2010) by Jennetp — 19 Nov 2010

I wanted to like this film more than I did. I appreciated the diffuse narrative and the fearless performances, especially by the pitch-perfect Keener, but I couldn't help thinking that Holofcener stumbled into Woody Allen's New York, where everyone is neurotic AND wears their neuroses on their sleeves at all times.

Thematically, the film is downright clumsy; to question the ethics of commerce, as Keener's character does, is to be overwrought and paralyzed, de-sexed and in need of some serious "retail therapy.

" In the film's final epiphany, Keener buys her horrible little daughter the $235 jeans she has been angling for throughout the film and everyone gets the warm fuzzies--except for this reviewer, who had an inexplicable urge to take a shower and re-read Das Kapital.

Still, kudos for avoiding most Hollywood cliches, which promises greater subtlety in films to come.