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Summer is generally a time of brainless movies: ridiculous rom-coms, dim-witted comedies, and big-budget action movies that revolve around explosions and chases—and little else. But if you’re looking for a brainier change of pace this summer, you might want to give writer/director Nicole Holofcener’s Please Give a try.
Ever since New Yorkers Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) bought the neighboring apartment from their aging neighbor, Andra (Ann Guilbert)—with plans to turn it into a new master suite after her death—they’ve gotten the cold shoulder from Andra’s granddaughter, Rebecca (Rebecca Hall).
Rebecca, a radiology tech, has been caring for her grandmother—and enduring her verbal abuse and general crankiness—for years, yet she can’t stand the thought of losing her. Her older sister, Mary (Amanda Peet), on the other hand, worries more about her tan—and her ex’s new girlfriend.
In the apartment next door, Kate is dealing with her own personal crisis. A vintage furniture dealer, Kate technically profits from the bereaved, and it’s making her feel guilty, compelling her to seek out any way to help the poor or the old or the underprivileged. Meanwhile, her husband, Alex, struggles with his inexplicable attraction to sharp-tongued Mary. And their daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele), struggles with teen angst and zits.
Please Give is a tangled web of ambling and somewhat aimless plotlines, with an ensemble of characters wandering in and out of one another’s stories. Without a solid story—something with a beginning, a middle, and an end—it relies instead on the characters to drive the film. Surprisingly, though, most of the characters aren’t even all that likeable. They’re misguided and shallow and often shockingly frank. Mary is self-centered and acerbic. Andra is demanding and ungrateful. Kate is paranoid and short-sighted. Abby is stubborn and insubordinate. And even Rebecca, though she’s thoughtful and caring, is also chilly and disapproving.
Still, although the rambling stories and the ensemble of sometimes outrageously flawed characters could make for a film that’s either dull or irritating (or worse: both), Please Give is actually strikingly clever and immensely entertaining. The characters, while a bit…prickly at times, are all portrayed so well that you can’t help but like them—or at least enjoy watching them. They say things that will shock the laughter right out of you because they’re so blunt and rude—yet they’re also honest, often saying things that you might have thought but would never dare to say out loud.
And, in the end, though the various stories didn’t really seem to be going anywhere, almost all of the characters have a kind of a-ha moment that will make you feel as if there was a point to all of their madness after all. Their stories don’t always end in the neatest of ways—nor do they necessarily end in the best of ways—but they’re thoughtfully and truthfully written. So if you’re in the mood for a comedy that’s not-so-brainless, you’ll enjoy the brains and the heart of Please Give.
