Pieces of April

23 May 2005 07:02 am

I was glancing around the reviews of this film and was pretty shocked to discover it got such high ratings. Not because it is a bad film but because it is unavoidably a low budget production. Good for them though, as it is a good film.

The film tells the tell of Thanksgiving – April (Katie Holmes) is the black sheep of the family who has moved to New York City and in an attempt to re-build bridges she has invited the rest of the family down for Thanksgiving dinner. To add some extra emo her mother is dieing on cancer.

The events go as smoothly as the family relationships however. April finds her oven broken and so has to attempt to find someone else’s to use while the family engage in a power struggle over whether to turn up or not.

To the film’s credit, it is pretty believable. Well some of the characters in April’s apartment building are a little over stretched (one of which is Sean Hayes, better known as Jack from Will & Grace), but the emotion and family arguments that exist within the film look like a real family with real problems.

Despite the fact that this movie is basically about a car driving along a road and someone cooking a turkey it manages to keep moving and sustain interest right the way through.

April’s boyfriend Bobby adds another angle to the movie as the streetwise partner who looks after April and spends the movie searching for something formal to wear in preparation of the family arrival.

The star of the show is without a doubt Joy (Patricia Clarkson) the cancer stricken mother. She wildly swings from one side to the other going from angry shouting to mediating on her own mortality.

The film also takes on that realism aspect thanks to the music – or lack of it. There is some but a lot of the movie feels like you are in silence which can do wonders for a film. Imagine Blair Witch with a Hollywood score behind it and you suddenly have the lamest horror movie ever.

Pieces of April may have cost under $250,000 to make and only three weeks to shoot but it could teach Hollywood a lot about making a good movie. It’s honest, emotional and a good watch.

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