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Pieces of April
MGM / United Artists


7.2

based on 36 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 18 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Dan in Real Life

MUSIC:

Pieces of April Soundtrack

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for language, sensuality, drug content and images of nudity

Starring Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Oliver Platt, Derek Luke, Alison Pill, Alice Drummond, John Gallagher Jr., Sean Hayes, and Sisqo

Poignant and funny, Pieces of April is an up-close look at an extraordinary day in the life of the not-so-ordinary Burns family. (MGM)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama \| Family/Kids
WRITTEN BY:	Peter Hedges
DIRECTED BY:	Peter Hedges
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 24, 2004 Video: February 24, 2004 Theatrical: October 17, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	81 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Special Jury Dramatic Performance Prize (Clarkson) (tie), 2003 Sundance Film Festival; Nominated, Grand Jury Prize, 2003 Sundance Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Both heartfelt and tough-minded.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Hedges's intelligent and touching farce, Pieces of April, makes an important contribution to a small and insignificant subgenre: Thanksgiving Day failure. It does so by raising the bar.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It turns out to be an especially warm comedy with a hidden heart. It's a film whose humor has feeling behind it because writer-director Peter Hedges doesn't let his comedy overpower an understanding of how emotionally weighted family situations are always going to be.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

This film explores what low-budget films do best: the quirkiness of character, and slightly off-kilter comedy.

Film Threat Tim Merrill

A film to savor and to be thankful for.

Variety David Rooney

A Thanksgiving family reunion comedy that sparkles with acerbic wit, original characters and genuine heart.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Pieces of April would deserve your attention and respect even if all these colorful threads didn't come together into a luminous whole. But they do, beautifully and unaffectedly, because what's been on Mr. Hedges's mind is not just a comedy of alienation but a drama of acceptance and reconciliation.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

The restraint and wit Hedges and his cast display in putting together Pieces of April pay off in the film's brightly organized, deeply satisfying conclusion.

Empire Natasha Aitken

Patricia Clarkson's standout performance as Joy is as honest as it gets, and writer-director Hodges treats her sickness not with pity but great understanding.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

It just feels like the real thing, which is a trick few writers can muster and even fewer directors can master.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Belongs, wholly and completely, to Clarkson, who delivers Joy's mordant asides and withering observations with a flawless balance of tartness and vulnerability.

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

This warm and scruffy film may strike some as a mere period piece, but it's juiced with recognizable family trauma and garnished with a quirky sensibility -- it's the portrait of a group of people we come to care about.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Hedges keeps everything in balance: The sadness and frivolity all seem to be part of the same emotional continuum. He’s made a lingeringly poignant little movie.

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

As the debate between digital video and film rages on, Pieces of April proves a point that many people overlook in the DV/film debate. If you have a great story, a great script and a great cast, DV will work as well as film onscreen.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Holmes nails every laugh without missing the dramatic nuances. She makes April and her movie well worth knowing.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Despite its themes of terminal illness, dysfunctional families, and the need to heal old wounds, the film spends more time provoking laughter than tears.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

In a movie that dwells so wittily and movingly on forgiveness, you have to grant pardon. Clarkson alone makes "April" a feast.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

For a movie about community and forgiveness, family and grace, Pieces of April is refreshingly unsappy.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

As pat as some of its conclusions may seem, this low-budget effort has charm, fine acting and one of the few realistic screen depictions of the awkward dynamics of a family trying to circle its wagons.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Clarkson, the reigning queen of the indies, is simultaneously funny and heartbreaking, following up killer performances in "The Station Agent" and "All the Real Girls."

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The characters are so convincing and the mood so light and flaky that it's hard not to find it a delicious little hors d'oeuvre of a movie.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The highest compliment I can pay Pieces of April is that it brings to mind a Paul Simon lyric: "the mother and child reunion is only a motion away."

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Pieces of April isn't the biggest or best film of the year, but it's touching, witty, smart and well-made. You have to sort through a lot of chaff at the multiplex to find all those qualities in a single movie.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Despite its flaws, Pieces of April has a lot of joy and quirkiness; it's well-intentioned in its screwy way, with flashes of human insight, and actors who can take a moment and make it glow.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Although Pieces of April doesn't quite stick together as a whole -- in some places it's conventional and a bit contrived, particularly the ending, which feels rushed and a little tough to buy -- Hedges peppers it with enough wonderful moments that you can't help warming up to it.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The ordeal undeniably strikes an emotional chord, and much of this is due to Holmes, who wonderfully communicates both the character's streak of rebellion and her desire to atone. The movie is a solid star vehicle for her.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Sweet and tart in just the right doses, but there's also something underwhelming about it.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

A modestly scaled film on every level, but Hedges and company manage to ring true on almost all the material's sweet and sour notes.

TV Guide Ken Fox

This gentle comedy marks the feature directing debut of writer Peter Hedges, a gifted writer who's perhaps best known for the screenplay based on his novel "What's Eating Gilbert Grape."

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

A tougher, more experienced director may someday force Holmes to surprise first herself, then us.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The quaint racial blinders are really on the eyes of the filmmaker, Peter Hedges, who shoves his characters into the narrowest of sitcom slots and seals them there.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Though Pieces Of April comes together with improbable grace, Hedges evokes unearned tears from a premise that's already loaded from the start. Like Holmes, he serves up boxed stuffing and canned cranberries, then fishes for compliments to the chef.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Ultimately Hedges’ film, like the turkey, comes out underdone.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The movie ends with a sentimental vision of unity that, admittedly, warmed this weary moviegoer's heart. If that vision was earned, I might even have melted.

Chicago Reader Anthony Kaufman

Patricia Clarkson is wonderfully acerbic as April's cancer-afflicted mom, and the finale is surprisingly subtle and sweet, but the rest of this DV feature is as contrived as a sitcom.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

Manipulative and cloying, Pieces of April turns into something altogether creepier, even pathological, whenever first-time filmmaker Peter Hedges (screenwriter of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and "About a Boy") brings up race.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jeremy F gave it an8:
Very cute, very good film. I really like it. This is a superb spell-binding from Katie Holmes. (Aw, look at Katie homes pre-Cruise... it's so nice.)

Judith M. gave it a10:
One of the best movies I've seen all year!

Brenda K. gave it a9:
I liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would. It grows on you and is so poignant. If you have any disfunctionality in your family at all you will "get" this movie.

tug gave it a 2:
Did you all see the same movie as I did? This movie was pathetic. I can't even figure out when it was trying to be funny, and rather than poignant or sober, I found it silly and boring.

Maximus gave it a 10:
Wicked Awesome.

Buttered Popcorn gave it a 10:
Very dark yet very funny. this movie falls into one of those 'families - you can't live with them and you can't live without them' genres. The movie is very inventive as a whole, and wonderfully refreshing. It's the most re-freshing movie I've seen so far this year.

Stephen S. gave it a 7:
Director Peter Hedges New York tenements are much less the overdesigned, overlit stage props that dominate In America, while the residents are a little more realistic too. Little does her family know that April, the black sheep of the family, now has a black boyfriend. He already knows the good stuff about her that the movie is set to reveal. Shes promised to do the thanksgiving thing for her reluctant family, driving down from upstate New York to the lower East Side. Hedges switches the action backwards and forwards, from the approaching family car to Aprils apartment. April, meanwhile, is bounced upstairs and downstairs, desperately seeking a functional oven (and oven-owner) to finish off the turkey. This only looks like a one or two-trick pony, but its sanguine wit and sober humanity enlarge it unexpectedly. Your moral life can only be enriched by making room for pieces like "Pieces of April."

Pieces of April MGM / United Artists

Pieces of April
MGM / United Artists