Pieces of April
I saw this Thanksgiving-themed movie last night in an empty theater, after the family left. I often enjoy that experience, because it makes me feel like they’re screening the movie just for my benefit (which I guess they are). It was a nice capper to a fantastic day of cooking, talking, laughing and eating.
Katie Holmes of “Dawson’s Creek” is surprisingly good as the rebellious, tattooed April, who has invited her estranged family, including her terminally-ill mother (Patricia Clarkson) to Thanksgiving dinner in her rundown apartment. Other than Sean Hayes’ over-the-top neighbor with an unrealistically swanky stove, the acting is great throughout. There were many times when the story went in unexpected directions, and it was touching and darkly comic in turns.
Clarkson, also great in “The Station Agent,” was fantastic as the prickly mother. I know in her situation, I would get pretty tired of people asking how I was all the time too.
It was eerily appropriate for me to see this movie after just having prepared a feast for my own (real) family. When April dropped the uncooked turkey on her almost comically dirty kitchen floor, I audibly gasped. And as I watched her decorate the hallway with streamers and make placecards as she ran around the apartment building looking for a replacement for her broken oven, I thought, “No way she’s doing that all in one day.”
Recommended.