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source: Please Give

At least Woody Allen's movies about New Yorkers had some humor and plot twists. What we have here is boring self-absorption. What is it about New Yorkers that their every little feeling is amplified out of context to be the be-all and end-all of existence? Why would I care about your guilt or any other feelings you have that make you uncomfortable. The characters in this movie give me no reason to care about them at all.... they're all too full of themselves. I'm sorry but like most people I do NOT see New York City as the "Center of the Universe". It's just a big, busy, overcrowded and overpriced mess of a city that exists for nothing more than self-glorification. Give me a break, I'd rather be in Philadelphia or Chicago or Seattle. At least the people in those cities have a horizon that isn't limited by the Hudson and the East Rivers. I rarely walk out of movies before they are over but I did on this one. A waste of my time.

I went into this film not knowing much about it. After I saw it, I thought, this reminds me a lot of Friends with Money in that it is a very perceptive critique of society that is totally enjoyable. Lo and behold, it is by the same director. Fine ensemble cast. Usually these type of films with multiple stories don't pay off, but this one works well as a whole. It is about a couple who buys furniture from recently deceased people and sell them in their upscale boutique for higher prices. Much of the story revolves around the main character's feeling of guilt. Great film, I would recommend it!

Perhaps the most interesting observations in 'Please Give', Nicole Holofcener's new 'dramedy' about two families that live next to each other in a New York City apartment building, are not the main characters' personalities but rather their professions. Cathy (Elizabeth Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) run a second hand furniture store, usually obtaining merchandise from home owners who have recently lost a family member. Then there are the two sisters who live next door: Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) who is a radiologist assistant at a mammography clinic and Mary (Amanda Peat) who does facials at a salon. 'Please Give' begins with unsettling closeups of womens' breasts at the mammography clinic. When viewing these images at the beginning of the film, one wonders if this is going to be one of those intense dramas about people afflicted with cancer. We soon discover, however, that 'Please Give' focuses much more on inconsequential concerns. The title refers to Cathy's overly altruistic nature. This is a woman who feels compelled to give money to homeless people whenever she bumps into them on the street. Her teenage daughter, Abby, is appalled by her mother's misguided altruism; in one scene, Abby takes a $20 bill away from her mother, who then pulls out a $5 bill, handing it to the homeless person, apologizing anyway that she doesn't have more to give him. Later, Cathy tries to land a job doing volunteer work, working with children with special needs; unfortunately, she becomes overly emotional about the nature of the handicapped kids' situation, which interferes with her ability to assist them on a practical basis. One of the main story lines involves Cathy and Alex purchasing their next door neighbor's apartment. The apartment will only be for sale when Rebecca and Mary's grandmother, Andra, kicks the bucket. She's a petulant old woman with a foul mouth. Additional conflict pops up between Rebecca who disapproves of the way her sister Mary treats their grandmother (Mary perhaps being the film's antagonist, due to her cold-hearted disposition). Little much else happens plot-wise in 'Please Give': Alex has a brief affair with Mary; Cathy argues about Abby's desire to purchase some expensive designer jeans; Rebecca begins going out with the grandson of one of the patients at the clinic; Cathy struggles with guilt feelings over the furniture markups and Andra finally does indeed kick the bucket. All's well that end's well when Cathy and Alex seem to resolve their differences with their teenage daughter and agree to purchase those expensive jeans she's been craving all along. Ultimately, Holofcener fails to develop her characters into full-realized human beings. Each has a quirky aspect to their personality and are placed in situations that I would hardly call 'riveting'. 'Please Give' is incredibly slow-paced and the laughs are few and far between. This film would have been much more compelling if the stakes were somehow raised and we were treated to a plot replete with all kinds of unusual twists and turns.

...And doing a darn swell job,by gum. I have admired the films of Nicole Holofcener for some time now,starting with 'Lovely & Amazing',thru 'Friends With Money'. Now,she gives us 'Please Give',a film dealing with a upper middle class,New York couple,Kate & Alex,who operate a used furniture shop. They are dealing with the next door neighbors,a cranky old woman & her two grand daughters,as well as Kate & Alex's teen aged daughter,Abby,who wants nothing more than a pair of designer jeans. In the midst of all of this,Kate's hubby,Alex,takes a real fancy to one of the grand daughters,Mary,who is a massage artist,which leans to a potential affair for both of them. Kate is a study in guilt (she gives money to just about any homeless New Yorker). All of this (and more)make for a well written drama,with splashes of wry & droll humour,for thinking persons who want more from film than just bad taste & bombast. Catherine Keener,a Nicole Holofcener regular, stars (and shines)as Kate. Oliver Platt is her somewhat swinish hubby, Alex. Sarah Steele adds a touch of tartness,as their daughter,Abby,who is going through the usual adolescence angst that most 15 year old girls do. Amanda Peet is Mary,and keep your eyes open for a nearly unrecognizable Ann Morgan Guilbert (the Dick Van Dyke show)as Audra. Also among the rest of the cast is,Rebecca Hall,Elizabeth Keener,and Elise Ivy. Nicole Holofcener writes & directs from her original screen play. Yaron Orbach is the cinematographer,with Robert Frazen as film editor. Smart,savvy film making from Nicole Holofcener that ranks with some of Woody Allen's comedy/dramas (especially the films from the late 1970's,to the early 1990's). Rated 'R' by the MPAA,for outbursts of raunchy language,and some sexual content.

Please Give (2010) A sharp, witty, touching, slice-of-life gem of a movie directed by Nicole Holofcener. It has some of the trappings of an Indie movie, with very ordinary people taking the leads and quirky low budget filming and music to make it undramatic. But the cast is top notch. The leads--there are four of them in a well balanced ensemble--are nothing if not believable. Maybe most impressive as an actress is Rebecca Hall, who played Vicky in "Vicky, Christina, Barcelona," completely transforming herself into an awkward, kindly, thoughtful and slightly whining young woman. Playing her sister is a hardened and unlikable Amanda Peet, who also has a Woody Allen feather in her cap, "Melinda, Melinda." Then there is a moderne era antique store couple, Catherine Keener (a regular in the director's films) and Oliver Platt, a comfortable couple who buy their antiques people who have just had a relative with an apartment full of stuff die. Yes, there is some black humor, hilarious stuff, and there are layers of contemporary New York life with its superficial and materialist angst, and charm. As events compound, usually with conviction, the characters become more rounded and intriguing. And sympathetic. By the end, you feel for everyone, whatever their weird and sometimes selfish cores. If the movie seems like a cross between Sex and the City and Six Feet Under, it's not a surprise--Holofcener has directed episodes from both series. Throw in her early apprenticeship under Woody Allen, and you get the humor as well as the high standards of writing and directing, combined, that Allen inspires. "Please Give" is slight, somehow, in its intentions. It takes a view of life that isn't so strange really, and where nothing all that unusual happens--the weirdness is just a reminder that we all have weirdness in our lives--and it makes it salient. That's the magic overall, lifting everyday traits into the light where they matter. Or matter differently. With a laugh. Don't miss it!

Always liked Catherine Keener. There's something very real and endearing about her. I read in the paper that this was an "Allen-esque NY tale". which is what made me want to see it. I agree. Like older Woody Allen movies; this movie was very clever, funny, good characters and a slice of NY life. This was the story of a married couple who collects "vintage" furniture from families who are clearing out the apartments of their deceased relatives. They then resell all this stuff in their shop in Manhattan for an elevated price. Naturally there's a certain amount of guilt involved in this sort of "ambulance chasing" practice and the wife/mother (keener) feels a lot of guilt and torn between making a nice living and wanting to give back to poor, homeless or unfortunate people in return possibly to assuage her feelings. In addition to this they have purchased the apartment of an elderly woman in the building and basically just waiting for HER to kick the bucket so that they can begin renovation on their new, larger apartment when they take it over and break through the walls. It's a really interesting story about how different people feel about things that they want, how they get it, and what they are ashamed of and how this manifests. Everyone WANTS to be good (that is except Mary, the sister played brilliantly and narcissistically by Amanda Peet)and the old lady, Edra who pretty much stole the movie and every scene she was in! All together a very enjoyable film.

According to Werner Erhard, guilt is a position of no responsibility. In other words, if you fail to openly acknowledge that you have acted in a way that is inconsistent with your integrity, you end up feeling guilty and beating yourself up about it. In Nicole Holofcener's latest acerbic comedy Please Give, the main character's lives are run by their guilt. Kate, played by Holofcener regular Catherine Keener, hates making money purchasing the belongings of the recently dead and selling them at an inflated price in her New York antique store but does it anyway and will probably continue to do it. To assuage her feelings of self-loathing, however, she hands out cash obsessively to street people but refuses to buy her cantankerous 15-year old daughter Abby (Sarah Steele) a pair of expensive jeans. Kate is not without compassion and attempts to volunteer with the handicapped and elderly but cannot handle it emotionally. The guilt, unfortunately, is spread around the household. Kate's husband Alex (Oliver Platt) feels remorse about cheating on his wife with an attractive neighbor, Mary (Amanda Peet), who works as a facial massage therapist and has no qualms about giving Alex a facial and other kinds of massages. Like Holofcener's 2001 film Lovely and Amazing which explored women's responses to a culture obsessed with youth, celebrity, and physical beauty, the characters are not bad folks. In fact they are really endearing and the director provides them with a distinctive voice, one that can be sweet and full of gentle humor, but can also be acidic and unpleasant. They are not people you may feel like hanging out with but they are always real and can also be fun. Please Give is not about the story but about the characters. Whatever story there is, however, centers on Kate and Alex's relationship with the daughters of their 91-year-old neighbor Andra (Ann Guilbert) who lives next door. The daughters, Rebecca, a lab technician who gives mammograms and Mary, the massage therapist, are both unmarried and the men they associate with do not have anything nice to say about them which seems to be what you attract if you do not feel good about yourself. Not that they are waiting for Andra to die or anything, but Kate and Alex have already bought the apartment next door and have made plans to enlarge their own apartment by breaking down the walls. Naturally Andra is full of fears, leading Abby to say to her mom that "When she sees you, she sees a vulture." Kate tries to smooth things over by inviting the old lady and her granddaughters over for a birthday party for Andra but some inappropriate remarks and Andra's whine about her birthday cake and a nightgown she got as a present casts a pall over the proceedings. On paper, the story of some feisty rich people and their spoiled daughter may sound like something you would want to avoid. In reality, however, Please Give is exceptionally involving and highly entertaining. It is filled with sharp wit, humor, and humanity, and contains some wonderful performances that light up the screen, a film that is reminiscent of Woody Allen at his best.

"Please Give" is the story of a husband and wife who butt heads with the granddaughters of the elderly woman who lives in apartment the couple owns, how things are intertwined and how circumstances eventually gets to them in both right and wrong way. Cast-wise, pretty good. Oliver Platt is very likable as the cool and flirty husband, with Catherine Keener playing his better half wondrously. Rebecca Hall is the core of this movie, giving a very powerful performance of a doting granddaughter, who sacrifices a lot for taking care of her grandmother. Amanda Peet does decently in her role of a beauty conscious stony-hearted sister of Rebecca Hall. A special mention for the two grandmothers, who were very natural in their act. "Please Give" is not entertaining; neither will it remain in your mind for quite some time. It might get irksome someplace, but having said, it's because it has been made in a very lifelike or rather natural, devoid of unnecessary cheap entertaining stuffs. It gets funny most of the times, but not ROFL stuff. It's decent enough to be enjoyable. Overall, "Please Give" is a sincere attempt to portray the life of two neighbors and their twist with life, once they get to know each other well or rather unwell. It's not recommended for people seeking fun and entertainment. Rather, it's a movie for someone looking for a mild funny, mild serious (non)-family movie. My Verdict: 6/10

Please Give (2010) was written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. It's a very New York City kind of movie. The plot revolves around the purchase of an apartment by two urban professionals. (They're not that young, so they're not yuppies, although they probably were yuppies in their day.) At present, they make an apparently excellent living buying up old "classic" furniture, and reselling it in their storeroom. Catherine Keener plays Kate, the wife, and Oliver Platt is her husband Alex. The problem with the purchase of the apartment is that it's still occupied by an older woman, and the agreement is that she will live there until she dies. Into the mix come the woman's two granddaughters--Rebecca Hall as Rebecca, the "plain" sister, and Amanda Peet as Mary, the gorgeous sister. (Rebecca Hall is only plain by Hollywood standards, and Amanda Peet is gorgeous by those same standards.) The film has several plot threads moving forward simultaneously, but the one that interested me the most was Kate's ambivalence about her source of income. Obviously, if you're selling any used furniture--classic or otherwise--you have to buy low and sell high. However, Kate is clearly guilt-ridden about making money because she knows furniture value and the sellers--usually children of a recently deceased parent--don't know these values. She also feels guilty about street people, and tends to give them ten- or twenty-dollar bills as she walks along the street. She really wants to help disadvantaged people, and checks out a residence for the frail elderly and a day program for developmentally disabled people to see if she can volunteer. Catherine Keener is an appealing actor, and her character is basically likable. However, as I thought about it, Kate's guilt doesn't lead to any really effective action. Yes, she agonizes about the furniture, but she buys and sells it anyway. And, although her motivation to help the less fortunate is clear, she doesn't actually accept the volunteer positions. She thinks about them, and she cries, but she doesn't really do anything. Still, you can't deny the honesty of her emotions. This is a movie in which, objectively, nothing truly major happens. However, the characters are changed by the events in the film. They are imperfect and they don't become perfect, but they're interesting and you care about them. As I wrote at the beginning of the review, this is a very New York City kind of movie. It crackles with realistic NYC atmosphere, and you get a real sense of the city. I could almost feel myself walking along the sidewalk with Kate or Alex. All in all, I think this is definitely a film worth seeing, and it will work well on DVD. My guess is that opinions about this movie will vary tremendously. I liked it, but others may have equally compelling reasons to dislike it. See it yourself and make your own decision.