Review: Please Give

Review: Please Give

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 88%

I saw Please Give yesterday. I was ready by the end of the movie to write a negative review. The main characters, Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) are naval-gnawing New Yorkers whose business is to buy "mid-century" furniture from the children of people who have recently died and then resell it at a substantial profit. They have a daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele), who is a typical zit-obsessed, rebellious, smart-mouthed teenager -- nothing unusual but well-played by Steele. They have an elderly neighbor, Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert -- Millie from The Dick Van Dyke Show). Her granddaughters visit her and run errands for her. One is attentive; the other is not. Her death is anticipated by Kate and Alex because they will buy her apartment when she dies, break through, and double their living space.

Yesterday, I saw the film as a slice of life story with a plot that didn't go anywhere. My friends who accompanied me to the movie and I went out to dinner afterwards and argued about Please Give for an hour and a half. I went out today with one of them for lunch and we talked for another hour about the film. It has become something of a perseveration for me.

In the movie, Keener's character gives money to every homeless person she meets on her street. She decides to become a volunteer and visits a retirement home and a center for mentally-challenged teenagers. She finds she can not deal with either of these groups emotionally and dissolves into a puddle of tears. Clearly, she is attempting to assuage her conscience. Her occupation bothers her. She recognizes that she preys on the desire of the children of the dead to avoid the pain of having to dispose of their parents' possessions -- and their memories. And she makes money from it.

Her attempts to give -- to the homeless and those in need of love and support -- are abortive because they are attempts to put band-aids over the deep open personal wound she is choosing to ignore. That's where the movie leaves us. We see no resolution, but we understand she needs to examine her own life and her own choices. She must take steps to change the way in which she engages the world. Her charity numbs her; she needs to deal with the emptiness in her life. Excuse me for being a priest here, but she needs God in her life. I don't see any other way out. The movie leaves her pretty much where she began. Yesterday, I found that frustrating. Today, I think that's exactly where it needs to end in order for us to see ourselves reflected in Kate's dilemma.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it