Pieces Of April on DVD (2003)

Already in my top 3 of 2004!

Matthew Sludds from East Anglia , 13/07/2004

It?s Thanksgiving and April Burns has invited her family to her New York apartment for dinner. As the eldest, and most alienated of three children this is a real chance for April to make a much needed good impression on her family.

If only it were this simple. Dinner is proving slightly more difficult than she anticipated, mainly due to the oven not working. Her boyfriend Bobby has been out for most of the day and she needs to recruit the help of her neighbours to get the turkey cooked.

Her efforts might be short-lived however, as her family are travelling from Pennsylvania somewhat reluctantly. Joy, her Mother deals with recurrent bouts of nausea brought on by her cancer chemotherapy and finds occasional relief from her Son?s cannabis supply.

Peter Hedges has developed an excellent script into a simple but effective film that had me laughing out loud one minute before placing a lump in my throat the next. The dialogue is witty and amusing from start to finish and the film never gets too heavy whilst dealing with some tough issues. The perfect answer to a lazy Sunday afternoon.

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Picking up the pieces

Kiwiboy from London , 31/08/2004

This better-than-average American indie rises above its potentially clichéd premise - a Thanksgiving dinner reunion between cancer-stricken mother Joy (Patricia Clarkson) and her misfit daughter April (Katie Holmes) - to deliver smart, edgy comedy and a deliciously spiky, Oscar-nominated performance from Clarkson.

April, a tattooed grunge girl with kohl-smudged eyes and Gothic jewellery, has invited her estranged family to Thanksgiving dinner in her tiny East Village apartment. They grudgingly agree, as it’s clear it may be Joy’s last Thanksgiving. When her oven breaks down, April seeks help from a variety of quirky neighbours in her building. Meanwhile, the family make the long drive into the city, stopping off for Joy’s frequent vomiting binges and stocking up on emergency junk food.

Perched in the front seat with a severely cut chemo wig, Joy seethes with barely contained rage at April’s history as a drug addicted wild child. “She bit my nipples when I tried to breastfeed her! No wonder there’s cancer”, she snarls, as her exhausted husband (Oliver Platt) tries to defend April and rally the family together.

Intelligently scripted by writer-director Peter Hodges (screenwriter for the equally dark and acerbic "What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?"), the film builds a believable and unsentimental picture of family discord, even if the resolution feels a tad contrived.

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Just Leaves you wanting more pieces of April

Nate Wilson from Norwich, England , 17/08/2004

so the plot has been explained. Pieces of April is the schmaltzy family holiday film which Hollywood cannot make. Peter Hedges has carved a script with a mixture of genres. Comedy especially, irony, black comedy, situation comedy all here, with moments of drama and serious issues. Hands down Patricia Clarkson is amazing in her role as April's mother, she is not afraid of playing a nasty character, while still being warm and likeable to the audience. The Rest of the cast offer great support. But this really is a showcase for Katie Holmes, who is really blossoming into a strong actress, not afraid of playing Joey Potter, but then not afraid of trying other roles. In Pieces of April, i've never seen someone carry such a complicated mixed script with such ease and natural talent. The range of emotions is fantastic and if you stay with it, i assure you that you will feel good at the end of it.

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Warm, moving and funny

Melon from East Sussex , 01/11/2004

This ultra-cheap lookng film starts off poorly with DV camerawork so cheap and filled with so much motion blur it's actually nauseating (indeed the making of featurette is so much better shot than the actual movie itself that it seems like they've overdone the impoverished indie film-makers routine - they probably could have made it look better if they'd at least tried).

But it swiftly improves due to the outstanding acting and genuine emotion expressed throughout. There are 3 major moments that take the film to a whole different level. Hopefully it won't spoil anything by sharing them with you.

1) April tells tbe black woman that she's got a problem and needs help. The woman looks at her and her laughter is genuinely infectious. It's just a very funny moment with a great punchline a few moments later.

2) April runs downstairs full of excitement when she hears her family has arrived only to find an empty street. It's really sad and moving and feels totally real and painful.

3) Best of all the great Oliver Platt as the father looks across at his terminally ill wife Patricia Clarkson and realises she may have died in her sleep. The look on his face is filled with so much pathos that it brings a tear to the eye. Truly proof that the greatest comedy is grounded in real heartache.

Worth seeing for that moment alone.

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Domestic Joy

THEBLUES from HANTS , 20/07/2005

This is a wonderful film. I don't know what the Sundance pitch was, maybe something like ' A young girl, left home and estranged from her family attempts to cook Chrismas lunch for them. And the cooker breaks down. What does she do?' Wow.

Not exactly mind blowing, but that in a nutshell is all it is. I saw this in New York Xmas 2003. I've seen it twice since, on each occasion it gets better.

It was obviously a labour of love from the writer/director Peter Hedges whose Mother died of cancer during the time of the film's development. The closeness of real life and the film are evident. Peter Hedges' directorial commentary tells us exactly how close.

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Warm, moving and funny

Melon from East Sussex , 01/11/2004

This ultra-cheap lookng film starts off poorly with DV camerawork so cheap and filled with so much motion blur it's actually nauseating (indeed the making of featurette is so much better shot than the actual movie itself that it seems like they've overdone the impoverished indie film-makers routine - they probably could have made it look better if they'd at least tried).

But it swiftly improves due to the outstanding acting and genuine emotion expressed throughout. There are 3 major moments that take the film to a whole different level. Hopefully it won't spoil anything by sharing them with you.

1) April tells tbe black woman that she's got a problem and needs help. The woman looks at her and her laughter is genuinely infectious. It's just a very funny moment with a great punchline a few moments later.

2) April runs downstairs full of excitement when she hears her family has arrived only to find an empty street. It's really sad and moving and feels totally real and painful.

3) Best of all the great Oliver Platt as the father looks across at his terminally ill wife Patricia Clarkson and realises she may have died in her sleep. The look on his face is filled with so much pathos that it brings a tear to the eye. Truly proof that the greatest comedy is grounded in real heartache.

Worth seeing for that moment alone.

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