Monday, November 15, 2010

PLEASE GIVE: AND PLEASE WATCH

Kate: I'm not spending $ 200 on a pair of jeans for my teenage daughter when there are '45' homeless people living...
Abby: What does that have to do with anything? They don't want jeans!

Catherine Keener is one of the most under rated actresses of our time. She is lovely and amazing (ha ha) smart and tender, funny and authentic. In this film, she plays a New Yorker whose sense of guilt guides her misguided efforts to be a genuinely good person. For the lack of a more delicate explanation her family is waiting for their neighbor, a hilarious Ann Guilbert, a 90-year-old woman whose death will allow them to expand their apartment. While they are waiting, they make friends with the woman's daughters, Amanda Peet and Rebecca Hall. Intertwined in the storyline about life and death and real estate, there is the stories of the relationships between mother and daughter, husband-and-wife, sister and sister. It is a very honest film where there aren't no bad guys, just people who are trying to make things right and rationalize their actions. Basically, it's about people trying to get along with each other however misguided their attempts may be. It is a subtle and poignant film, not to be missed.