SummaryKate has a lot on her mind. There’s the ethics problem of buying furniture on the cheap at estate sales and marking it up at her trendy Manhattan store. There’s the materialism problem of not wanting her teenage daughter to want the expensive things that Kate wants. There’s the marriage problem of sharing a partnership in parenting, busi...
SummaryKate has a lot on her mind. There’s the ethics problem of buying furniture on the cheap at estate sales and marking it up at her trendy Manhattan store. There’s the materialism problem of not wanting her teenage daughter to want the expensive things that Kate wants. There’s the marriage problem of sharing a partnership in parenting, busi...
Sophisticated comedies have gone out of fashion, largely because Hollywood finds it easier and more profitable to simply gross out moviegoers. But Please Give has real class -- and for that it deserves our gratitude.
I suspect nearly everyone who sees the picture will have a loud opinion about this ending, which is just one way Holofcener works her stealth magic as a filmmaker and storyteller: She doesn’t close up shop on her movie until she’s made each of us an honorary New Yorker — in other words, a person with a strong stance and something to say.
Really interesting movie...Oliver Platt, Kathrine Keener. Great acting, very subtle. It seems to me that the writer actually wrote for an intelligent audience. Go figure.
I'm sure there isn't a writer/director who can do a better job than Holofcener. Each scene, each dialog is taut and funny even when it's tragic. It's a very New York movie and I'm not sure how many jokes and situations non-New Yorkers will get, but Ms. Holofcener is an absolutely amazing talent.
The movie is about imperfect characters in a difficult world, who mostly do the best they can under the circumstances, but not always. Do you realize what a revolutionary approach that is for a movie these days?
An extremely pleasant film with fantastic performances, especially from Catherine Keener and Rebecca Hall. The script is funny, bittersweet, smart, and biting. All in all, it's a great little feature from Holofcener.
This has to be one of the most underrated comedies ever. So pure, perfect characters, hilarious dialogues, so down to earth and completely different from any other comedy i've seen... not the best in its type but definitely deserved more attention!
Nicole Holofcener writes and directs Please Give, a tart, touching indie drama about generosity and selfishness. Holofcener (Lovely & Amazing, Friends With Money) explores familiar territory in her latest film, showing the comedy and pathos of haves and have nots in Manhattan.
Women's breasts are readied for scanning by mammogram technician Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) in the striking opening scene. Pale, serious Rebecca comforts and assists an unending parade of patients. A compulsive giver, she's not receiving much. Rebecca lives with her elderly grandmother and rarely goes out, not even to see the fall foliage upstate. To her, breasts are neither beautiful nor repulsive, but "tubes that can get infected."
Holofcener shows the interplay between two Manhattan families, reflecting America's uneasy balance of wealth and poverty. Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) are a wealthy couple that resell contemporary antiques in their city showroom. The two live and work together all day long, an arrangement bound to strain any marriage. Adding to that tension is Kate as she plunks $20 bills into the hand of any homeless person she meets. Opportunities to profit and feel guilty about it abound as Kate and Alex acquire estate furniture bargains from grieving adults. Meanwhile their 15-year-old daughter Abby (refreshing Sarah Steele) begs for a pair of $200 designer jeans.
Living next door is 91-year-old Andra (Ann Guilbert, who played nosy neighbor Millie Helper on the **** Van Dyke Show). In space-hungry Manhattan, Kate and Alex have already purchased Andra's apartment and plan to expand their living space after she dies. Meanwhile they are genuinely polite to the cantankerous neighbor and her granddaughters Rebecca (Hall) and sexpot Mary (Amanda Peet). Peet (Somethingâ
This is a pretentious, boring movie. Just isn't as good as ppl are saying. Nothing happens. Leaves no impression whatsoever. Mostly, I just wished I hadn't wasted 2 hours after seeing it.