Saturday, January 15, 2011

Please Give (2010)

I really liked the writing in this movie, and I think Catherine Keener is a terrific actress, but my problem with this movie is that there really isn't one likable character to hold my interest.

Kate and Alex (Keener and Oliver Platt) own an upscale furniture resale shop where they get all of their vintage pieces from the family of recently deceased elderly people. They get a pretty penny for them, too. At the same time, they know their aging neighbor is on her way out, life-wise, so they are starting to think of what they are going to do when they buy her place after she dies. Both of those things cause Kate to feel a tremendous amount of guilt and she tries to counteract that by giving money/food to homeless people or volunteering wherever she can. Neither of those things always go so well for her. On top of all that, their daughter is a spoiled brat who doesn't understand that $200 or $30 jeans look the same, Alex begins to have an affair with one of the old neighbor's granddaughters (Amanda Peet), and rival boutiques are starting to poach her shop. You know Kate's breakdown is going to come sooner or later, it's just a matter of how she handles it when it does.

The movie was so well written that I can't say I didn't like it, and the performances were very good in it. My problem was that every character was either a bitch or a complete slave to their lack of self esteem that it was really off-putting at times. The story was well-rounded and there was closure for a lot of the characters at the end, but I'm just curious if they learned anything when it was all said and done. I wanted to like this more than I did, but it's nothing more than just a "good movie." Grade: B-

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