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Behind the Scenes of Please Give
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The aspirations of an upper-middle-class Manhattan family collide in Nicole Holofcener's caustic Please Give. Catherine Keener's Kate, who runs a vintage furniture store with her husband, Alex (Oliver Platt), covets the apartment next door--she and Alex aim to expand their living quarters--but the current occupant, elderly sourpuss Andra (The Nanny's Ann Guilbert), isn't anxious to vacate the premises. Andra's granddaughters, Mary (Amanda Peet) and Rebecca (Vicky Cristina Barcelona's Rebecca Hall), look in on her more out of a sense of duty than affection. Kate tries to befriend them, but her acne-obsessed daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele), has better luck. After Kate invites the trio to dinner to celebrate Andra's birthday, Alex finds himself attracted to Mary, a narcissistic salon worker who shares her grandmother's sharp tongue (her sister works as a radiology technician). While Alex makes excuses to visit her salon, Kate gives twenties to the homeless, worries that there's something unethical about the way they obtain her merchandise--from the estates of the recently deceased--and struggles to find a volunteer activity that will assuage the guilt she feels about her good fortune. In other words, Holofcener, who has also directed episodes of Sex and the City, returns to the concerns that bedeviled the women in Friends with Money. Their knack for saying exactly what they think doesn't always make them pleasant company, but it does make them funny and real, and Holofcener's versatile ensemble rises to every awkward challenge she throws their way. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Product Description
A family looking for some extra space gets drawn into a difficult relationship with the folks next door in this comedy drama from writer and director Nicole Holofcener. Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) are a couple living in New York City who run a successful store specializing in vintage furniture. Kate and Alex have a teenage daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele) and their apartment is starting to feel a bit small for the three of them; Kate and Alex own the unit next door to them, and once the flat becomes vacant, they plan to knock out a wall and take over the space. However, Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert), their tenant, is an elderly woman with a poor disposition who doesn't seem eager to go anywhere soon, and it's occurred to Kate and Alex that they're probably going to have wait for her to die, since evicting her would be very awkward. Hoping to make the best of the situation, Kate tries to strike up a friendship with Andra and her fiercely protective granddaughter Rebecca (Rebecca Hall), but Andra isn't especially interested in making new friends, and Rebecca's sister, Mary (Amanda Peet), isn't much easier to deal with.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 26 people found the following review helpful
By Rustin Parr
Format:DVD
Eternally bitter, cynical but never toxic and always with a hint of beautiful humanity, Nicole Holofcener is always a distaff alternative to Woody Allen's neurotic obsessions. Her works, deemed as 'vagina movies', are no less assured, and even surpass the works of her male counterparts; whereas, Allen's works nowadays are consistent in their inconsistency, Holofcener's works organically evolve to correspond to the reality that we live in, and, as response, the people that we become. Her first film, "Walking and Talking" back in 1996 is a thoroughly charming and affable film, with concepts of loneliness, abandonment and feeling lost explored, but the pervading anxiety and bitter humour that have long since been her staple from her second film thereafter, are kept at bay, for most of the time. Her characters continually grow. Now, circa 21st century, and being caustic seems to be a natural trait. Still, Holofcener uses that to great effect; bitterness never overshadows, but merely used as a launching pad to explore the quiet beauty hidden amidst the toxic and the unpleasant.
In her fourth film, "Please Give", she tackles capitalism, displaced guilt, physical appearances, infidelity and death amidst a chaotic, arbitrary world that is rather nihilistic, but only in a gentle, breezy, free-wheeling meaninglessness that does not feel like a discourse on an Ingmar Bergman's nothingness, but more akin to Eric Rohmer's affable meandering that is no less understatingly hurtful and quietly emotional.
Set in rumbling New York City, Kathy (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) own a furniture store, set by the couple's practice of buying furnitures at very low prices and put them up with high markups. They are also waiting for the next door neighbour, a bitter, ungrateful old hag, Andra (Ann Guilbert), to die so that they could expand the size of their apartment. In the meantime, Andra's two nieces, Rebecca (Rebecca hall) and Mary (Amanda Peet) are dealing with their own problems: Rebecca is a busybody, working as a mammogram technician, keeping romance and personal life at bay; and Mary, a skin consultant, who continually stalks her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend, and at some point, ends up having an affair with Alex. Amidst all this, Kathy and Alex's daughter, is dealing with her bodily appearance: her weight and acne problems.
"Please Give" sets up this multi-strand storylines via Holofcener's typical free floating, stream-of-conscious fashion that negates the structural device of storytelling, and opts for a presentation of a slice-of-life. The camera adopts an objective point of view, even revelling in arbitrary scenes that seem to never amount to anything, but somehow feel organic to the whole film. And even with this objectivity, it is never unsympathetic, even if most of these characters are unlikeable and even bordering on being nasty.
Indeed, sometimes it's better to start off with the negative to accentuate the positive. With this, Holofcener is able to explore the moral implications of living in a capitalistic society. To what extent does one go to successfully carve out a comfortable life for one's self? Kate's obsession with giving out a lot money to the poor seems irrational, but really an ascetic ideal that she churns out for herself, to get rid of her guilt for her wrong choices in life. It is an inherently self-destructive act, prompted by shame, insecurities, selfishness and self-absorption, that is merely offset by the outer appearance of the act: it is an ostentatiously kind and generous act of giving. Kate's asceticism mirrors Mary's affinity for stalking an unsuspecting woman and having an illicit affair with Alex: the lengths to which one goes to, just to find a name for an undefinable feeling of loneliness and pain. At least, with the daughter, it is called being chubby, and acne-ridden. Wait until she gets older.
All of these characters, just like in any other Holofcener films, feel insignificant; they struggle living in a hostile, unlovable world, and they respond to themselves and to each other in equally hostile, unlovable manner; but there is quiet beauty that is transcendental when one watches Holofcener deviates further more into seemingly random scenes; like seeing an anonymous couple looking for the right furniture in Kathy's store, or Rebecca walking the dog with Kathy's daughter. Like watching an unexpected petal falling off a dying flower, Holofcener's images are delicately evocative, and revelatory in their quietness.
"Please Give" is a very sharp, brutally honest work that is all at once, hilarious, acidic, and always strangely moving, without any need for emotional manipulation or ostentatious dramatic histrionics. See this, not merely as an entertainment, but as an opportunity to bask in its many quiet moments of emotional insights that neither praise nor condemn its characters. Besides, there is Catherine Keener, Holofcener's beloved muse, one of the very few actresses nowadays who can effectively kill someone with merely delivering a cutting remark, and simultaneously still break a heart with pathos for her character.
In her fourth film, "Please Give", she tackles capitalism, displaced guilt, physical appearances, infidelity and death amidst a chaotic, arbitrary world that is rather nihilistic, but only in a gentle, breezy, free-wheeling meaninglessness that does not feel like a discourse on an Ingmar Bergman's nothingness, but more akin to Eric Rohmer's affable meandering that is no less understatingly hurtful and quietly emotional.
Set in rumbling New York City, Kathy (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) own a furniture store, set by the couple's practice of buying furnitures at very low prices and put them up with high markups. They are also waiting for the next door neighbour, a bitter, ungrateful old hag, Andra (Ann Guilbert), to die so that they could expand the size of their apartment. In the meantime, Andra's two nieces, Rebecca (Rebecca hall) and Mary (Amanda Peet) are dealing with their own problems: Rebecca is a busybody, working as a mammogram technician, keeping romance and personal life at bay; and Mary, a skin consultant, who continually stalks her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend, and at some point, ends up having an affair with Alex. Amidst all this, Kathy and Alex's daughter, is dealing with her bodily appearance: her weight and acne problems.
"Please Give" sets up this multi-strand storylines via Holofcener's typical free floating, stream-of-conscious fashion that negates the structural device of storytelling, and opts for a presentation of a slice-of-life. The camera adopts an objective point of view, even revelling in arbitrary scenes that seem to never amount to anything, but somehow feel organic to the whole film. And even with this objectivity, it is never unsympathetic, even if most of these characters are unlikeable and even bordering on being nasty.
Indeed, sometimes it's better to start off with the negative to accentuate the positive. With this, Holofcener is able to explore the moral implications of living in a capitalistic society. To what extent does one go to successfully carve out a comfortable life for one's self? Kate's obsession with giving out a lot money to the poor seems irrational, but really an ascetic ideal that she churns out for herself, to get rid of her guilt for her wrong choices in life. It is an inherently self-destructive act, prompted by shame, insecurities, selfishness and self-absorption, that is merely offset by the outer appearance of the act: it is an ostentatiously kind and generous act of giving. Kate's asceticism mirrors Mary's affinity for stalking an unsuspecting woman and having an illicit affair with Alex: the lengths to which one goes to, just to find a name for an undefinable feeling of loneliness and pain. At least, with the daughter, it is called being chubby, and acne-ridden. Wait until she gets older.
All of these characters, just like in any other Holofcener films, feel insignificant; they struggle living in a hostile, unlovable world, and they respond to themselves and to each other in equally hostile, unlovable manner; but there is quiet beauty that is transcendental when one watches Holofcener deviates further more into seemingly random scenes; like seeing an anonymous couple looking for the right furniture in Kathy's store, or Rebecca walking the dog with Kathy's daughter. Like watching an unexpected petal falling off a dying flower, Holofcener's images are delicately evocative, and revelatory in their quietness.
"Please Give" is a very sharp, brutally honest work that is all at once, hilarious, acidic, and always strangely moving, without any need for emotional manipulation or ostentatious dramatic histrionics. See this, not merely as an entertainment, but as an opportunity to bask in its many quiet moments of emotional insights that neither praise nor condemn its characters. Besides, there is Catherine Keener, Holofcener's beloved muse, one of the very few actresses nowadays who can effectively kill someone with merely delivering a cutting remark, and simultaneously still break a heart with pathos for her character.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
"Please Give" is a film expertly directed by Nicole Holofcener. It is full of realistic portraits of complicated human foibles and yet shines a light on what is important in life.
Kate (Catherine Keener) is a guilt-ridden mother who runs a successful second-hand furniture store in down-town New York with Alex (Oliver Platt), her husband and business partner. They also are feeling that their apartment is too small and plan to knock down a wall when the apartment they own next door becomes vacant. Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert), their strong-willed elderly tenant seems to be planning to stay and Kate and Alex realize they have to wait for her to die. Evicting her has become out of the question. Abby (Sarah Steele) is their 15 year old daughter who has acne and a determination to buy a $235 pair of designer jeans.
Kate and Alex feel that it is awkward not to be friends with their elderly tenant and invite Andra over for a birthday party, along with her two granddaughters, Mary (Amanda Peet) and Rebecca (Rebecca Hall). Andra is crotchety and not that interested in birthday parties or presents. She comes to the party but is ornery and full of snarky comments about the cake and present she receives.
Kate and Alex are also dealing with Abby's teen-age angst. Kate also feels guilt making profits on vintage furniture from estate sales and Alex has guilt issues from a recent fling with Mary.
Overall "Please Give" is profound, full of funny insights on guilt and imperfection.
Kate (Catherine Keener) is a guilt-ridden mother who runs a successful second-hand furniture store in down-town New York with Alex (Oliver Platt), her husband and business partner. They also are feeling that their apartment is too small and plan to knock down a wall when the apartment they own next door becomes vacant. Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert), their strong-willed elderly tenant seems to be planning to stay and Kate and Alex realize they have to wait for her to die. Evicting her has become out of the question. Abby (Sarah Steele) is their 15 year old daughter who has acne and a determination to buy a $235 pair of designer jeans.
Kate and Alex feel that it is awkward not to be friends with their elderly tenant and invite Andra over for a birthday party, along with her two granddaughters, Mary (Amanda Peet) and Rebecca (Rebecca Hall). Andra is crotchety and not that interested in birthday parties or presents. She comes to the party but is ornery and full of snarky comments about the cake and present she receives.
Kate and Alex are also dealing with Abby's teen-age angst. Kate also feels guilt making profits on vintage furniture from estate sales and Alex has guilt issues from a recent fling with Mary.
Overall "Please Give" is profound, full of funny insights on guilt and imperfection.
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Please Give" follows in the footsteps of "Friends with Money" in exploration of women, relationships, and money
June 21, 2010
Format:Blu-ray
"Please Give" comes from the writer/director of "Friends With Money", Nicole Holofcener and while that movie explored themes of being rich and how the wealth is spread around through charity and what they weren't willing to spend money on, this one goes a similar route. "Please Give" explores a series of people who either are in need or have the capacity to give something needed to others and figuring out if they are doing it for the good of the recipient or just to ease their own selfish guilt/pity/sorrow. Most specifically, two granddaughters deal with their rude aging grandmother while her next-door neighbors who have purchased her apartment are technically waiting for her to pass away so they can renovate and the guilt of swooping in afterward begins to get to some of them.
Rebecca Hall plays Rebecca and seems to be the only faultless character of the cast. She works in mammography and tends to her 91 year old grandmother on a daily basis along with caring for her dog and cleaning her apartment. Rebecca is shy and only seems to work for others and takes no time for herself and wants to be the peacekeeper always. The intimacy of her job takes so much out of her that she clams up and stays reserved around others until one patient's son takes a special interest.
Rebecca's sister, Mary played by Amanda Peet puts so much emphasis on her own surface value that she never develops much beneath it. Mary is rude to her grandmother on the excuse that the old woman is mean. Mary seems directionless except for maintaining her tan and trying to find out what is so special about the woman her ex left her for and trying to tear her down to make herself feel better. Amanda Peet is scary talented at being cold and beautiful. Her logic for her behavior toward her grandmother only foreshadows how she herself will be treated in old age since she seems to be on the fast track to that bitterness.
Catherine Keener's character, Kate appears to carry the weight of the suffering of the world on her shoulders. She feels so much guilt, pity, and grief when confronted with death and misfortune that the only way to quell some of that is to give back with money to homeless people on the street and others that she mistakenly assumes to be just for standing around outside bundled up. Kate attempts to volunteer her time for the less fortunate, but the emotion is too much to handle it. She is in a business of buying and reselling antique furniture, but feels so badly for the people whom she buys from that it begins to affect her reasoning and business sense.
Catherine's husband, Alex is played by Oliver Platt sees no problem with the business they run together as he views it unemotionally (It's not personal, it's business) and even gives Kate an out that she can go do other things if she wants and can't handle it here. He is exasperated with her wishy-washyness and stubborn purchase of occasionally worthless pieces because she felt bad for someone. They work well together as partners, but this added stress makes him seek out an escape. He only has a minor role to play in the course of the film as with Holofcener's other films, this one focuses on women, their viewpoint, and their relationships with others.
Their daughter, Abby played by Sarah Steele has her own issues with being a teenager with bad skin and wants to ally herself with beautiful Mary and embrace her ideals. All she yearns for throughout the movie is a pair of $235 jeans and the way she blows up at her mother when they go shopping or walk down the street is cringe-inducing and sadly accurate to high school mood swings. Abby goes so far as to snatch a bill out of the hand of a street person Kate just donated to under the objection that her mother worries more about perfect strangers than the needs of her own family. Uh...That is an interesting discussion point.
Each character goes on a journey and ends in a different place than where they started, but as far as commentary on the subject of charity and giving, it seems we are being left up to our own discussions without a direct moral message for the audience. I was left with mixed feelings about the film and felt it lacked the focus to really drive home the objective.
Rebecca Hall plays Rebecca and seems to be the only faultless character of the cast. She works in mammography and tends to her 91 year old grandmother on a daily basis along with caring for her dog and cleaning her apartment. Rebecca is shy and only seems to work for others and takes no time for herself and wants to be the peacekeeper always. The intimacy of her job takes so much out of her that she clams up and stays reserved around others until one patient's son takes a special interest.
Rebecca's sister, Mary played by Amanda Peet puts so much emphasis on her own surface value that she never develops much beneath it. Mary is rude to her grandmother on the excuse that the old woman is mean. Mary seems directionless except for maintaining her tan and trying to find out what is so special about the woman her ex left her for and trying to tear her down to make herself feel better. Amanda Peet is scary talented at being cold and beautiful. Her logic for her behavior toward her grandmother only foreshadows how she herself will be treated in old age since she seems to be on the fast track to that bitterness.
Catherine Keener's character, Kate appears to carry the weight of the suffering of the world on her shoulders. She feels so much guilt, pity, and grief when confronted with death and misfortune that the only way to quell some of that is to give back with money to homeless people on the street and others that she mistakenly assumes to be just for standing around outside bundled up. Kate attempts to volunteer her time for the less fortunate, but the emotion is too much to handle it. She is in a business of buying and reselling antique furniture, but feels so badly for the people whom she buys from that it begins to affect her reasoning and business sense.
Catherine's husband, Alex is played by Oliver Platt sees no problem with the business they run together as he views it unemotionally (It's not personal, it's business) and even gives Kate an out that she can go do other things if she wants and can't handle it here. He is exasperated with her wishy-washyness and stubborn purchase of occasionally worthless pieces because she felt bad for someone. They work well together as partners, but this added stress makes him seek out an escape. He only has a minor role to play in the course of the film as with Holofcener's other films, this one focuses on women, their viewpoint, and their relationships with others.
Their daughter, Abby played by Sarah Steele has her own issues with being a teenager with bad skin and wants to ally herself with beautiful Mary and embrace her ideals. All she yearns for throughout the movie is a pair of $235 jeans and the way she blows up at her mother when they go shopping or walk down the street is cringe-inducing and sadly accurate to high school mood swings. Abby goes so far as to snatch a bill out of the hand of a street person Kate just donated to under the objection that her mother worries more about perfect strangers than the needs of her own family. Uh...That is an interesting discussion point.
Each character goes on a journey and ends in a different place than where they started, but as far as commentary on the subject of charity and giving, it seems we are being left up to our own discussions without a direct moral message for the audience. I was left with mixed feelings about the film and felt it lacked the focus to really drive home the objective.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
another surprisingly better than good movie from Nicole Holofcener
I know that sounds backhanded but this is the second movie from Holofcener that I would never have watched if something else was on and that I found to be a really good movie with... Read more
Published 18 days ago by Dwight
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Great Movie!
Blu-ray great quality and the movie was really quirky which is what I really like. A great story and had me on the floor at times laughing.
Published 4 months ago by Swonny
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another winner by Nicole Holofcener
Another great story by Nicole Holofcener - the writer/director behind Friends with Money and Lovely & Amazing. One of my favorite director. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Dan Steadman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Much more interesting than I was led to belive
I thought from the reviews I saw when this first came out that this would be about the lead character's unraveling and randomly giving out money. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Reader
1.0 out of 5 stars
Tired pretentious garbage
Every time I get one of these Yuppies with Problems movies I am expecting something better than what I'm getting. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Tim Lieder
5.0 out of 5 stars
Life as it should be
This film confronts the viewer with some disturbing conclusions on human relationships, but in a gentle and generous way. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Leopold Bloom
5.0 out of 5 stars
A New York gem...
Funny, insightful, poignant & terrifically well acted, this is a real slice of NYC life. Several slices actually, but as delicious as the best Katz's delicatessen pastrami. Read more
Published 17 months ago by inframan
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent character study of 3 generations
Nicole Holofcener manages to put out another nice film featuring complicated women...well at least to me. She clearly has a gift for the female take on life. Read more
Published 18 months ago by M. Oleson
1.0 out of 5 stars
Incoherent Dribble
This movie is a base, rambling heap of garbage. It's incoherent, has no real conflict, and I simply can't understand why so many people give it good reviews. Read more
Published 23 months ago by HM
4.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful urban comedy
"Please Give" is an insightful multi-character comedy/drama set in the bohemian section of The Big Apple. Read more
Published on April 19, 2011 by Roland E. Zwick
