"Pieces of April" is my favorite Thanksgiving movie. I have watched it every year on this weekend since it was released in 2003.
It tells the story of a family as they drive for hours into New York City to have dinner in the grungy apartment of the family's black sheep referred to in the title. She has long since been cast out for the usual litany of offenses, but April's mean streak didn't begin with adolescence and drug abuse. Seems she has been a terror since she came out of the womb.
The Burns family has decided to take the trip due to Mom's cancer. "This could be the last time," is a refrain throughout, the last Thanksgiving, the last chance to give Mom one happy memory of the kid.
The movie cuts back and forth from suburbia to the graffiti -covered tenement where April lives with her boyfriend, Bobby (Derek Luke), who Dad thinks has promise because he's not the last boyfriend, a drug dealer. Bobby is the film's only optimist. The movie isn't heavy on message or hope. April is a certified idiot. But boyfriend Bobby believes in love.
He leaves the apartment on an unspecified errand and his departure leaves April on her own with a turkey and an oven which does not turn on. She drags the turkey up and down the tenement stairs truly amazed that no one wants to let her borrow their oven on Thanksgiving.
April meets several memorable characters in pursuit of an empty oven while we meet her family as they pick up Grandma at the nursing home and drive into the city.
"Pieces of April was written and directed by Peter Hedges, who wrote the novel and screenplay for "What's Eating Gilbert Grape." He won an Oscar for adapting the Nick Hornby's novel, "About a Boy" into a screenplay. All three films are characterized by brutal honesty. "Gilbert Grape" covers the most potentially maudlin topic imaginable, a teenager chained down by the needs of his mentally ill younger brother, and his obese mother. Yet not once are familiar strings pulled. We've never seen this story before. "About a Boy" left a similar impression. Every time "Boy" seems on the verge of tipping over into sentimentality, Hugh Grant's playboy character spits out a line that shocks rather than soothes, such as calling a boy's suicidal mother "you daft, fucking hippie," in front of the boy in a crowded restaurant.
The joys in "Pieces of April" are equally deft and unexpected. It's digital photography has a claustrophobic feel to it. April's apartment seems to have every square inch accounted for, and the Burns family is crammed into a car for most of their scenes, except when Mom has to pull over and puke.
The casting is perfect. April is played by a Katie Holmes we've never seen before or since. I suppose directors can be forgiven for losing the script in her luscious appearance, but here she's just a grungy chick with a hair dye I'm pretty sure didn't come out as planned. We watch her shove full celery sticks up the bird's ass because she doesn't know she is supposed to slice them first.
Her parents are played by two steady hands, Oliver Platt and Patricia Clarkson. April's sister, Beth, is played by the aptly named Alison Pill, the do-gooder whose attempts at perfection fail to impress Mom and Dad. Sean Gallagher Jr., plays the brother, Timmy, who has been recruited by Mom to photograph her final days, including before and after shots of her double mastectomy. Alice Drummond plays Grandma Dottie, who doesn't get that her daughter is coping with her own iminent demise.
Clarkson, Platt and Holmes stand out, but this is a writer's movie. There There is an edge-of-your-seat quality to it. Katie Holmes preparing a turkey is better than the best disaster movie crash. We supect something horrible is about to happen. Will Mom make it? At one point she leaves the family car and starts hitchiking back home. Will sister Beth succeed in talking Dad into turning the car around? Will boyfriend Bobby make it back in time after running into April's ex? Will April get the creepy guy on the fifth floor to let her back in so she can get her turkey? He refers to their "exchange" and wonders what he is getting out of the deal.
If only more directors understood that the heart-stopping moments in life don't involve car chases and shootouts.
There isn't much sex in the film, but April and Bobby do roll around a bit on the bed early on. Keep this in mind when you watch April throw the bedspread over the table because it's the closest thing she's got to a tablecloth.
Bon Apetite!
Check out an interview with Peter Hedges and Derek Luke here:
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Comments
I'll put this one on my Netflix list. I'd like to see it again. Thanks for the reminder.
Rated
Must say, IMHO, that the last sentence paragraph four begins with 'But' and would serve well with: 'And boyfriend Bobby believes in love.'
No, it's not an overertly pendantic point.
The entire post is probably the best I've seen all holiday, and fits well with the disclosures and ambitions you've revealed. Along with the good literature you write.
Do you work with scripts? Are they still called 'treatments'?
Buffy--Here's hoping you find more interesting things to do on a cruise. Movies are for when you're stuck at home in a snowstorm, or on a couch with a bellyful of turkey that won't let you get up.
Nora and CK--I wasn't aware of Hedges' role in the to other films until I did a wiki search to see who this guy was. He's been writing for a while, of course, but his success in these three films seems akin to a guy from Triple A ball coming to the major leagues and hitting home runs his first three at bats. There was another film called Map of the World, which I've never heard of, so, okay, he hit three home runs in his first four at bats. Pretty remarkable. I avoided his latest project, Dan in Real Life, because I've not been too crazy about Steve Carrell outside The Office, and because it features Dane Cook, who I'm not crazy about anywhere. Might have to go back and take a look.
JHart--Duly noted and thank you. Glad you enjoyed the post. And no, I've never written a script.
But best Thanksgiving movie for me still goes to "Home for the Holidays." I just realized I need to watch that one again!
R
And... KH can act!
Love it.