Pieces of April (DVD, 2004)

When I first saw "Pieces of April," I had no idea about Katie Holmes (or who/what she would become -- primarily famous for her role as Mrs. Tom Cruise). Holmes plays April Burns, her estranged family's problem child, who tries to make amends by inviting the family for for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in her cramped NY apartment. Dinner preparation unfolds as a comedy of errors when April discovers that her formerly unused oven doesn't work and sets off on a mission to "borrow" a working oven from other residents of the tenement building, none of whom she has ever met. The comedy of the situation is balanced with poignant moments, such as when April declares to a helpful neighbor that she is the "first pancake"--the one you are supposed to throw out.

Meanwhile, the Burns family makes the trip from their comfortable suburban home toward the clearly unfamiliar ghetto in which their black-sheep daughter resides. Patricia Clarkson is the Mom, Joy, who is battling terminal breast cancer and simmering with rage and disappointment. While trying to come up with one good memory of April, Joy runs from the car. She cries out that she has no good memories--just "the fire in the kitchen, the drugs, the ingratitude"--and is terrified that this Thanksgiving will be just one more bad memory, an outcome that she is clearly too fragile to handle.

Jim, the dad (played by Oliver Platt) is steadfast in his attempts to reconcile his family as he declares, "We are going to have a nice time.".

Beth, April's sister, clearly suffers from being the "good kid" who has grown up in the shadow of the "bad kid," who draws all the parents' attention and resources. During the drive, Beth makes repeated efforts to sabotage the dinner at April's, including a stop at Krispy Kreme to get everyone to fill up on doughnuts before attempting to tackle April's cooking.

Writer and director Peter Hedges (scriptwriter for "About a Boy" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape") based this script on his own mother's battle with and death from cancer, plus a true story about a group of his friends and how a broken stove thwarted plans for Thanksgiving dinner.

This is my absolute favorite Thanksgiving movie. Despite the subject, it ultimately celebrates both connections with family, and the "family by choice" we build of our friends and neighbors. I imagine that anyone who has shared the experience of coping with a "problem child" would find a kindred spirit in Joy.

Clarkson was nominated as best supporting actress for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

Warm, witty and wise,this movie is a post modern look at a nuclear family, with all it's foibles and quirks. It pokes gentle fun at a families inability to allow members of it to flex and grow and redefine their roles within, all while being hilariously entertaining.
The plot follows a young punk / goth girl (Katie Holms, pre-Tom), during her ill-fated attempt to make Thanksgiving Dinner for her disapproving family. She wants it to be perfect, to prove she is growing up, they have a vested interest in proving her wrong. While this is going on the camera also follows her boyfriend, who has left the house on some mysterious, unstated "business." He seems destined to prove her undoing. And then our gal realizes that the oven isn't working. April's day is spent negotiating with neighbors for assistance, and coping with the baggage they are carrying too, which provides a lot of laughs. This film really demonstrates the subtle things that drive a family to form the way they do, and also shows that these things are not insurmountable to showing love and support, and that support can be found in other places too.
Although this is not a movie for everyone, It has become a holiday classic for my family. It's warm message is really just what the doctor ordered during the holidays, or anytime of the year. This movie is so much more than the usual holiday blather, and I highly reccomend it.

Based on the trails and tribulations of a young girl cooking her first Thanksgiving dinner for her estranged and more then dysfunctional family.
Filled of hope the quirky April starts the day in preparation to please her family with a wonderful dinner, only to find her oven is broken.
She searches the graffiti filled building she lives in, knocking on the doors of neighbors she has never met in hopes of enlisting help in the means of a working oven.
On the other hand flashing to her family on the road trip to April’s Thanksgiving and the trials, tribulations and revelations of their own.
Pieces of April touches your heartstrings as well as your funny bone as the day progresses to what can be truly called “Thanksgiving” for all.
Katie Holmes takes April to the perfect place. Well worth a watch.

I bought this movie because some moron in the Wall Street Journal said positive things about it. I greatly disliked the film. It incorporates all the trendy techniques that make so many movies unwatchable lately. The camera is almost always too close to the subject; minor movements are shot at a distance of about six inches. My response is "back off!" "Get out of my face!" "Give me some space!" It is impossible to enjoy a film made with these production "values." The story was warm and fuzzy and supports the Thanksgiving ideal, but you have to endure this nearly unwatchable film to the end to get the point. I paid almost nothing for it, but it still wasn't worth it.

In short, this is a miserable movie, unless you like tight closeups, fast cuts, the obsession with faces, and the nearly complete absence of medium and long shots (the things that make a movie watchable, in my opinion). I'm being blunt here so that you won't be disappointed as I was. Now if you favor the modern camera techniques that I call technological masturbation, then take a gamble. But don't think that you're going to sit back, relax, and enjoy broad vistas into another sphere. Instead, you'll be seeing tight shots of a pan handle, somebody's ear lobe, and other narrow views that deny you access to the broad scene, the context, the space. This movie demonstrates precisely what has ruined movie-making--and much of TV for that matter. This is "liberal" movie-making, wherein the makers seek to control precisely what you look at, by leaving everything else out of the frame. It's micromanagement of your viewing experience--they, the makers, know better than you do what you should be paying attention to. They're smarter than you are, and you need to give up control and let them direct your life. That's the heart of liberalism. As I said, it has wrecked movies and TV.

Ebert & Roeper give it two thumbs up: They must be all thumbs.
"One of the best films of the year," says FOX TV: If that's true, it's no wonder I never go to the movies.

You've been warned!

Pieces of April will hit alot of people close to home. It is the story of April ( Holmes in a underated role.) who is fixing a turkey dinner in her New York apt for her family. Her family is obviously not very happy about the trip( Her sister makes it obvious.)because April has not turned out the way they wanted her too. Oliver Platt gives a heart felt performance and Holmes is remarkable as April.