sharky_55 Pieces of April is a neat little indie film from the early 2000s about a dysfunctional family brought together by the occurrence of Thanksgiving and a spot of life-ending cancer. April Burns is the estranged daughter who sends out the invitations for what could be their final holiday dinner together, and to throw an extra spice into the mix, it's also the first meeting with her mysterious boyfriend (he's black, but a slight upgrade on her previous drug-dealing partner. Go figure.). But director Peter Hedges arranges the structure of the movie so that these stories are all separate strands, and when they converge in the end, all past grievances have been aired and resolved. It is the journey there that tells the story; the reunion is just a formality. A young Katie Holmes plays the titular role, and looks the part (although she would be a complete anachronism today): heavy gothic eyeliner, dyed pigtails, a choker and an abundance of irreverence. But beneath that surface brews anxiety, and Holmes frets frequently and appropriately. Just look at her fall to pieces when stumbling across a pair of salt and pepper shakers along with the childhood trauma that accompanies them. She enables the grief to be visible. Her mother by comparison gets the meatier, Oscar-worthy opportunities, able to undercut her nastiness with biting humour. It's Patricia Clarkson's sheer dismissiveness of the situation that makes her such a potent personality; it's her last Thanksgiving, and she's getting as many late shots in as she can. The natural rhythms of the overlapping dialogue in and out of the car assist this aura of toxicity, riffing off each other, then cutting in during the middle of a sentence, bouncing punchlines off egos. Their timing is impeccable, like a comedy troupe in perfect sync. See how Alison Pill splutters a protest when her big-headed brother tries to snap a candid photo of her picking at her teeth, and then as Clarkson cuts in with a sarcasm comment. You can't buy that type of authenticity. Stylistically, Hedges makes the best of his shoestring budget, replacing conventional lighting and camera setups with a handheld grittiness, as if the viewer was a distant cousin awkwardly observing this family reunion like a fly on the wall. It's no Cassavetes, but it works well in stripping away the glamour of their fragmented lives, peering up and around the dinghy corners of April's apartment block. Livolsi cuts with scrappy relish, in one particular occasion overlaying April and Bobby's sweet pillow talk (about the lavish meal they are preparing) with the bickering and chaos of the rest of the Burns family making their way into the city. It's all grainy and the outdoor shots are overexposed, but those have never got in the way of a good story. April's quest to cook her damn turkey doubles as an expansion of her mindset and tolerance, sharing stories and cooking tips with black neighbours and overflowing with gratitude at the Chinese family who lend her the use of their oven, although they don't speak a lick of English. This is all pretty conventional stuff, and although it may be eye-opening for April, it's not exactly groundbreaking or transgressive. Even when Bobby is fretting over making a good impression on his white girlfriend's family, the subtext is mostly text. When he bumps into April's drug-dealing ex, instead of highlighting the irony of how race still is the overpowering stigma, it just becomes a bad comedy sketch. It all ends in a wordless montage set to gentle music and touching snippets of the reconciliation dinner, which is perhaps more than the Burns deserve. See Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married for a similar story that doesn't pull its punches.

Lee Eisenberg Family gatherings and the unpleasant things resulting therefrom are a common theme in cinema. "Pieces of April" features this theme but branches it out to also look at social isolation. April (Katie Holmes) has lived in this apartment in New York for some time but hasn't gotten to know the other people in the building. Upon finding her oven broken, April has no choice but to try and get to know people. Meanwhile, her family's conversations reveal old wounds.The movie is shot in a naturalistic style to give a sense of realism. And quite frankly, that's the only thing in April's dismal world (both from her residence and her family). All sorts of bad things are happening with each group (April, her beau, and her family). And the movie pulls off everything perfectly. This is exactly what a movie should be. I recommend it.Also starring Patricia Clarkson (who received an Academy Award nomination for the role), Oliver Platt, Alice Drummond (the librarian in the original "Ghostbusters"), Derek Luke and Sean Hayes.

mmagliaro If ever there was a movie about acceptance, dysfunctional families, and putting people and feelings first, this is it. Katie Holmes is FABULOUS as a daughter who lives in somewhat of a hovel of an apartment in the city. Her family is en route by car to spend Thanksgiving at her apartment. Initially, it appears that they (her mom, dad, brother, etc) are the white-bread average stable American family, and April is the one who just can't get her life together. The movie flips back and forth between April and her family. We see scenes of her trying to learn to cook, overcome a broken stove, sociopathic building neighbors, poverty, and a host of other ills to pull off Thanksgiving dinner. These are interspersed with scenes of the family on their long car drive en route to April's apartment. The film does a masterful job of making a whole story just out of revealing and exploring the personalities of April and her family. We gradually come to understand that April is a perfectly charming, sincere young woman who loves people and tries her best. It is her family who are the losers who really have no life. They reveal themselves as, in one way or another, lazy, unaffectionate, preoccupied with getting high, self-loathing, judgmental, prejudiced, hateful people.It's hard to believe that it's Katie Holmes, but it is. She was TERRIFIC in this.

richard_sleboe Most people, when they read "family drama", they run. Don't. "Pieces of April" is different. It is keeps you involved and affected, but without any of the blatant good intentions that usually make this kind of movie so hard to watch. What is more, Katie Holmes is a far better actress then you would expect from her tabloid pedigree. Her portrayal of the prodigal daughter attempting reconciliation with her family is as touching as it is funny. April has invited her family to her ramshackle New York apartment for Thanksgiving. The script goes back and forth between April's place (where she has a very hard time preparing a proper Thanksgiving dinner) and her family's road trip (who are fighting and doom-saying all the way to April's doorstep). Disaster is in the air. Fine performance by Oliver Platt as April's father. Magnificent soundtrack by Steve Merritt of The Magnetic Fields.