Kate and Alex run an interesting business. They find recently deceased elderly and offer to buy their furniture from the remaining relatives. They take that furniture and resell it at a considerable mark up. Their business thrives and their lives are vastly rich, the only issue is that their lives feel incredibly disconnected and empty. On top of this their highly insecure daughter Abby is growing up without their instruction (due to always being in the ‘shop’) and that’s not going well. With their marriage, and life, seemingly falling apart something has got to give, and it does. Kate begins to feel guilty by their way of life, especially once they meet their neighbors Rebecca and her sister Mary. Rebecca is everything that Kate wants to be and Mary is everything that Alex currently is. Wanting more, and wanting to give more, Kate makes it her journey to correct all the wrong doings she can and figure out a way to get everything back on track in everyone’s life.
This movie is a tough one to figure out. At first, I was sure that writer had just plain missed the mark with tying everything back together in the story. Trying to make me believe that Alex and Kate was once a happy couple was a stretch, especially after Alex’s infidelities. Then bringing in their daughter that was a bit of a whiner didn’t help. On top of this we also have the separate story of Rebecca and Mary, who didn’t seem to fit anywhere at all. Rebecca was the thoughtful, helpful one and Mary was the shallow bitch of the group. Then it struck me after the second viewing, everyone is trying to find a way to do better and resolve his or her own guilt. What’s incredibly neat about this story is that Kate is the first one to realize that she has to resolve her own guilt and leads the pack into making that change. Alex, who seemingly has no guilt, finds out how terrible he has been to his wife and daughter. Rebecca’s guilt lies within not having enough time to take care of her grandmother. Mary’s guilt stems from her own insecurities from self-image. Once Kate starts to get her stuff together and attempts to resolve her guilt everyone else follows suit.
It’s a beautiful mess that somehow gets ‘almost’ resolved at the end; that’s kind of what hurts the film. Everyone seems to have it together by the end of the film with exception to one person, Alex. Oliver Platt plays a perfect Alex, someone who is trying to find something else to make him happy (his marriage apparently isn’t that thing). At the end of the film everyone comes to a resolution of sorts for their misguided lives except for him. I know that Nicole Holofcener would probably sit down and disagree, but I just don’t feel any ‘conclusion’ with him like I do the others. Everyone else has recognized their shortcomings and made the change, even if just subtle changes. Alex just doesn’t seem to get there.
Anyway, the film is pretty good, if not just a tad bit powerful. It certainly won’t make you want to change your life, but will ask you to reflect on it a bit. It works on a few levels and it fails on minor ones, but ultimately it’s a good film to watch. Led by a cast that firmly believes in the story, Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Amanda Peet, Rebecca Hall and Sara Steele do a fabulous job as misguided souls.
Good stuff and maybe something you should at least rent for a Saturday evening viewing.
As for the Blu-ray side of things, you get some great quality with the video. The film relies on very heavy blacks and whites, which makes it thrive when it comes to good 1080p video. There are barely any grainy moments in the film. The film especially benefits from the HD when you see Kate’s guilt literally coming to life; it makes things more powerful for those moments. As for the audio, it’s remastered in DTS-HD, which has its benefits here and there. It’s not like it’s an action film, so you won’t be hearing explosions coming out of the left speaker and shifting to the right. Rather you will hear a good soundtrack and great dialogue coming out where it should in nearly crystal clear ways.
Finally, the features you get are pretty good. You get some great outtakes (with a cast like this it would be nuts not to have outtakes), a healthy featurette on the behind the scenes of the film and some question/answer with the director. I wish there had been commentary, but the director’s Q/A makes up for that in a way.
Here’s a list for you:
• Behind the Scenes of Please Give
• Outtakes
• Nicole Holofcener Q&A Clips
• BD-Live™ (Blu-ray™ only)