Review of Please Give (2010) by Laimis Z — 04 Dec 2010

I'm a big fan of indie film and especially the sensibilities which have become the norm of the genre (It's not just about the budget or studio anymore, there's a feel to it after all...) But sometimes the films can become doppelgangers of themselves, trying too hard to bring out some human norm that ends up being related in the most pretentious of ways.

Holofcenter is one of those directors who I've felt like she has done this in the past. Her ideas and her execution have never really quite meshed for me. Her films are female-centered and female-driven (someone Hollywood needs more of.

..). This one is no different with the main focus of the film being on the relationship of a wife and husband and their daughter and two sisters and their grandmother. Each relationship/conflict she has here is incredibly interesting and the razor-like quality within her writing makes for a finely tuned story that gives each character a distinct arc; some arcs are obvious, some are not.

Most interesting, is Catherine Keener's character who is someone who has given into the global guilt of the homeless, but feels no remorse for ripping off the families of the recently departed or the need to give her daughter $20.

Keener plays her perfectly with a very pathetic quality attached to her that is in a way a mirror of how we collectively don't want to be guilted into acting this way; her critique is on society's forming of this woman as much as it is of the character herself.

Less timely and more universal is Amanda Peet who is the perfect match for a character that seems like a total bitch, but underneath that tan veneer there's an honesty that lurks after every word that almost none of the other characters have.

She's telling us the truth more times than not. That moment she has with Rebecca Hall at the end shows us that there's vulnerability within and that her crass moments are just facades for who she really is.

Expertly written and acted and though he first half slightly dragged, I was well in-tune with it the rest of the way.