Many New York City-based films tend to focus on prominent sights, such as Times Square, the Statue of Liberty and Fifth Avenue. The city is often depicted as America’s epicenter of wealth and luxury, as cliché plotlines often depict two lovebirds frivolously spending money at the most extravagant places in New York.
But for those who consider themselves true New Yorkers, many would argue that these generalizations are completely off-based depictions. Independent filmmaker Nicole Holofcener, who directs films that aim to delve deeper into human relationships with humor accomplishes this in her latest film, Please Give, which features an ensemble cast of complex characters situated in an authentic backdrop of New York City.
The indie drama played at the Staller Center on Nov. 19th. Please Give succeeds in developing characters, as each role struggles with his or her own moral dilemmas. Each character’s issue is not only personal, but reaches a greater extent of family matter. Kate, played by Catherine Keener, and Alex, played by Oliver Platt, both oversee a used furniture store that is highly profitable because they purchase items from children whose parents have recently deceased. Usually, the children have no idea of the items’ value. As the film continues, they buy the apartment adjacent to theirs and are eagerly anticipating the death of its 91-year-old inhabitant, Andra, played by Ann Guilbert, so they can take it over.
Kate is a guilt-ridden mess because of this ordeal, and tries to compensate for her own wrongdoing by giving money to homeless people on the street and doing community service work, which she cannot manage.
Enter Andra, who has moved in with her granddaughters: the benevolent Rebecca, played by Rebecca Hall, and the mean-spirited Mary, played by Amanda Peet. As all of these characters intermingle, each individual’s personal issues, from physical imperfections to infidelity, bounces off of the others, and they inversely react to the consequences given their family dynamics.
If a moviegoer yearns to see a superior cinematic exploration of the contradictions of one of the world’s great cities, then the choice is Please Give. This film shows how each character deals with his or her issues that make things interesting in life. And when those issues interrelate to family dynamics, things can become convoluted in both a tragic and humorous way.
This is a movie in which, objectively, nothing truly major happens. The lack of a conventional plot gives freedom for the characters themselves to showcase how they progress, or regress, by the change brought by certain events in their lives. They are imperfect and they don’t become perfect, but experience development in their own respects. The ensemble cast gives compelling performances to distinguish their roles from each other, but they complement each other so well that the film is very lifelike and natural.
Please Give presents a resonating factor to those who are dealing with similar problems. The city itself isn’t much of an emphasis, but the film displays just a slice of two New York families attempting to navigate through life in the backdrop of New York City. Technical intricacies are not the main focus of this film, but, rather, the nuanced character study of Please Give is an identifiable aspect for those who are studying their own character as well.
