Pieces of April (2003)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

As Good As It Gets

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The first must-see film of the year.

April is the eldest daughter of a middle class family. She however is now dead broke living with her boyfriend in New York. She invites her family however for Thanksgiving. She is however out to make sure the dinner gets well. However her family has reservations about going.While April prepares her dinner "Anything That Can Go Wrong Does". This is a heartwarming film that is really a Modern Day Thanksgiving and how all of us need each other. Rather it be family or neighbors. A Must See

Often after watching either a disaster or a masterpiece, I'm left sort of speechless, but rarely am I left that way for something this qualitatively "OK". It's melodramatic, cloying and falsely complex, yet also comfortingly human, quietly funny and the way it absorbed my mind, it clearly had some sort of unquantifiable impact on me that makes it worth recommending.

" For Days I have been trying to think of nice April memories and I can only come up with one. She was just gazing out the window and she said "oh mother don't you just love every day?"" : Joy Burns Movie opens in one seedy Manhattan apartment with April (Katie Holmes)and her African-American boyfriend Bobby (Derek Luke) chaotically preparing for a big thanksgiving dinner. Meanwhile, April's highly dysfunctional family is preparing to leave their upstate New York suburban home to share this dinner with April in New York, anticipating disaster from the petulant April who is also eldest daughter and "black sheep" of the family.Peter Hedges has done something noteworthy in Pieces of April. Movie is shot in digital video format with an overall off-colour outlook. Patricia Clarkson delivers one of her best performance as April's ailing mother "Joy Burns" who is in her terminal stage of Breast Cancer. Her character is hilarious and maddening at the same time. Katie Holmes as April plays the role of a wayward eldest daughter of this dysfunctional family. She has not seen her family for some time now and as it may be the last thanksgiving of her mother, she invites her whole family to her apartment in New York. While preparing thanksgiving dinner and dealing with her neighbours, amid all the chaos she realizes that this may be her last chance to re-conciliate with her family. Movie flips-flops between scenes of neighbour-hopping escapades of April while facing all kinds of troubles in preparing thanksgiving dinner, and her family recollecting April & her shortcomings on their way to Manhattan.Pieces of April is funny, moving, sad & intensely human, may be the best thanksgiving movie I have ever seen. Movie works as an ensemble piece which may have collapsed without its center piece Joy Burns (Patricia Clarkson). Katie Holmes was riveting as April in her punk look. Movie is only 80mins long and in the end leaves you wanting for more of this eccentric family. Unlike the stereotypical depiction of Thanksgiving, Pieces of April explores basic human frailties, but remains true to the thanksgiving theme all the time. Elements of comedy and tragedy are beautifully interwoven in the movie. Hedges pans out a very moving & heartwarming climax by making all the pieces of April come together and bequeaths you with a feeling of bittersweet lightness. If you are a fan of offbeat 'slice of a life' cinema then this one is not to be missed.My Rating: 8/10.http://flickyfriday.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/pieces-of-april-2003/

To be quite simple - the story is simple, but heartwarming and really makes you care about the characters from start to finish. April (played terrifically by Katie Holmes) is hosting a thanksgiving dinner which will most likely be the last one she will hold with her Mother and family due to her Mother's terminal cancer. They are driving to New York to see April while at the same time dreading the experience that will either distance April even more from her family or finally make some peace.Katie Holmes gives a really good performance as the rebel girl who is trying to make some new changes in her life. What this story does is simply tell a story that we could all relate to on one of these special occasions - whether it be Christmas or a birthday. The fact that this is a low budget film with the quality of the film being reasonable, though not spectacular actually adds to the whole feel of it - it makes it more real.What is also great is the supporting cast and characters who come into the whole drama. The black family who lives in the apartment block end up helping April when her oven breaks and the food preparation actually had me wanting to go buy a turkey and have a great feast. Most of all, Patricia Clarkson's performance is splendid and with all the great performances, you keep caring till the very end and rooting for the family to get together and to come to an understanding.It's movies like these - which are so overlooked, which really should get more attention. Sometimes something simple can end up being one of the best movies you can see.