Review of Please Give (2010) by Tyler C — 04 Jan 2011

As if there weren't enough movies out there about self absorbed New Yorkers. Every minute of Please Give is tedious un-pleasantry that is too outlandish to be relatable but too tame to be farcically entertaining.

The plot revolves around a married couple played by Oliver Platt and Catherine Keener who are waiting on the death of their elderly neighbor played by Ann Guilbert so they can buy her apartment to build an addition to their own residence. Two other main roles are the grandchildren of Guilbert played by Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet. The film covers them in their average, boring, and non-believable daily struggles.

The members of this cast could generally make any preposterous dribble sufferable, but not even their amiable personalities can overcome the hum-drum characters they portray. Rebecca Hall is an actress who has never disappointed me before (even in sub-par films) until now. I have witnessed her flawlessly embody a various types of characters of different nationalities, ages, social classes, and personalities; here Hall just seems like a Hollywood cliché of the nerdy lonely girl romantic comedy lead. Amanda Peet as her sister is given very little to do and is so one dimensional that her performance while not terrible, is irrelevant.

Catherine Keener has shown the ability to give grounded confident performances in the past, but here she just seems to be sleepwalking. Oliver Platt on the other hand seems to go out of his way give a cartoonish performance that is painful to watch. And then there is Keener and Platt's make-believe teenage daughter who is so incredibly annoying that you actually feel a modicum of empathy for the un-relatable leads. Guilbert plays the most curmudgeonly cardboard cut-out old person in the history of silver-screen, small-screen, or stage; outdoing both Ebenezer Scrooge and Archie Bunker.

While there are little tidbits and insights about life that this film gets right, such as the fact that old women like the color red for their hair dye; the screenplay is mostly a complete failure and mess. The plot is all over the place, the comedy falls flat, and the dialogue is abhorrent. Any attempts at subtlety are lost, any complexity of character that is reached for misses severely; do yourself a favor and skip Please Give.