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Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Amanda Peet, Rebecca Hall, Sarah Steele ... see more see more... , Ann Morgan Guilbert , Thomas Ian Nicholas

A family looking for some extra space gets drawn into a difficult relationship with the folks next door in this comedy drama from writer and director Nicole Holofcener. Kate (Catherine Keener) and Ale... read more read more...x (Oliver Platt) are a couple living in New York City who run a successful store specializing in vintage furniture. Kate and Alex have a teenage daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele) and their apartment is starting to feel a bit small for the three of them; Kate and Alex own the unit next door to them, and once the flat becomes vacant, they plan to knock out a wall and take over the space. However, Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert), their tenant, is an elderly woman with a poor disposition who doesn't seem eager to go anywhere soon, and it's occurred to Kate and Alex that they're probably going to have wait for her to die, since evicting her would be very awkward. Hoping to make the best of the situation, Kate tries to strike up a friendship with Andra and her fiercely protective granddaughter Rebecca (Rebecca Hall), but Andra isn't especially interested in making new friends, and Rebecca's sister, Mary (Amanda Peet), isn't much easier to deal with. Kate and Alex are also struggling to communicate with Abby, who has her own issues regarding self-image. Please Give received its world premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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61% liked it

10,579 ratings

Critics

87% liked it

133 critics

R, 1 hr. 30 min.

Directed by: Nicole Holofcener

Release Date: April 30, 2010

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DVD Release Date: October 19, 2010

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Flixster Reviews (729)

  • paulsandberg
    November 7, 2011
    paulsandberg
    Here you have a one trick pony - something perhaps better suited as a TV sitcom... and it plays like one, sad to say. There's very little character development with each character a cardboard bit of archtype, providing very little tension as it slickly moves from predictable plo... read moret thread to predictable plot thread.

    In a nutshell, you have a New York couple who deal in "reclaimed" furniture. The big secret is how they get said furniture. You see, the couple, aptly played by Platt and Keener swoop in on estate sales and the like, taking advantage of those in mourning or those just unaware; picking up prime pieces for peanuts and then later selling them at huge profits.

    The one trick pony is that Keener is feeling guilty. How very un-capitalistic of her! Of course she realizes that if she and her husband weren't doing it, someone else would be (as the film shows in one of the few bright scenes, where another dealer takes advantage of Keener's feeling of guilt, getting a table for 4k which he then sells at his own shop for 7 - ain't America great?).

    Thrown into the mix is the totally superfluous role of the 15 year old daughter - who has no real purpose, but somehow the director decides to make into a major character anyway (the repeated riff on the 200 buck pair of jeans is boring and repetitive - and to end the film with her receiving the holy grail attempts to give this not so subtle statement about consumerism far more weight than it should. Of course even here, the message is mixed, as it could equally be argued that you get what you pay for. After several attempts at cheaper jeans (which don't fit), the daughter finally wins out when the expensive pair fit her better - and give the daughter a much needed boost in her self esteem (ooh, another message!).

    There is attempted black humor as Platt and Keener are waiting for the 90 year old woman next door to die so they can buy her apartment and tear down the walls to make their place larger. The old bag is direct to a fault, ha ha, and when you add in her two granddaughters, one a mouse who cares for grandma, and the other a shrew who predictably ends up bedding Platt, you get the kind of plotting and script that might last a full season as a "real life" sitcom. But as a feature film.... You have every right to expect more. I walked away from this film without an ounce of caring for any of the characters - the film played so trite and felt so scripted and melodramatic that I simply cannot believe all the wonderful reviews this high school play has received. Unreal and phony - if this is what "in the know" New Yorkers think is real - I'm eternally grateful I live on the opposite coast.

    In over 300 films reviewed, this one ranks near the bottom - not because it's spectacularly bad, but because it pretends to be art and a look at real life - and delivers neither one.
  • jennifxu
    May 1, 2011
    jennifxu
    I think that Nicole Holofcener has my kind of humor, that sort of mean-spirited, abrupt, non sequitur kind where you laugh really hard and then immediately afterward feel really bad for laughing. And I also like that there's always a tint of melancholy spotted in every stretch of... read more dialogue, no matter what the mood. It brings you down to earth, somehow.
  • fernandorafael
    March 22, 2011
    fernandorafael
    Delightful dark comedy by Nicole Holofcener. Please Give is so rewarding because there's real pain behind the humor. The characters are very well layered: they're not the most likeable bunch (Amanda Peet's is just plain evil), but Holofcener somehow managed to make an affecting y... read moreet enjoyable film out of these obnoxious people. As was the case with the director's previous film, Friends With Money, the cast is superb. Frequent collaborator Catherine Keener, perpetually underrated Rebecca Hall and Ann Guilbert shine.
  • DrZeek
    March 22, 2011
    DrZeek
    Kate: I'm not spending U$ 200 on a pair of jeans for my teenage daughter when there are '45' homeless people living...
    Abby: What does that have to do with anything? They don't want jeans!

    Please Give is the type of comedy art house comedy that features a collection of good ac... read moretors all given great dialogue to play off of with each other. It can be a little alienating for some, as the comedy has the kind of sharp edge/awkward nature that can put some people off; however, the film as a whole is a nice study about two different families. The plot is not uneventful, but it does present fairly ordinary situations brought to the length of a full feature. I found that the film may not have had immensely likable characters, but for the most part it worked well at delivering a solid comedic drama.

    Read more at Thecodeiszeek.blogspot.com
  • shawnewing92
    March 14, 2011
    shawnewing92
    This "comedy" is far from funny or interesting in any matter. The characters are boring, the plot goes nowhere at a slow pace, and I could not even finish the film before turning it off.
  • itsjustme2004
    March 7, 2011
    itsjustme2004
    I lreally like Nicole Holofcener movies, but this one fell a little bit short. It was still decent and an engaging to watch, but it was missing something. It could have been so much better, in my opinion.
  • ceWEBrity
    February 25, 2011
    ceWEBrity
    Disappointing within its own framework, Please Give starts out as a surprisingly funny look at privilege and "need", but the movie completely loses its footing in the second half. The characters are meant to be revealed as universally irritating, but instead they become merely re... read morepetitive, and their behavior is completely unrealistic in any context. It isn't a problem of acting, as the cast is on-point, but some of the shit that tumbles out of their mouths is just insipid. I've met some truly heinous New York hipster types in my time, believe you me, but there's no justifying the caricatures that rapidly balloon as Please Give progresses. It's as if Nicole Holofcener started out with some really great ideas for her characters, and instead of exploring or deepening these ideas she just riffs on them over and over until everyone falls apart. This could have been so much more with another draft of the screenplay and a more balanced third act, but in its current form it's just a mawkish, fitfully clever indie doomed to quick obscurity.

    (Also disappointing, especially so given that it was written and directed by a woman: Oliver Platt scores Catherine Keener AND Amanda Peet. I'm sorry, what? What is it about Keener that just screams "cast me alongside a really ugly man"?)
  • gor41
    January 16, 2011
    gor41
    Uneven indie emotathon which drifts along aimiably enough with distinctive performances from Peet and Steele but little conviction.
  • fb100000145236770
    January 14, 2011
    fb100000145236770
    Uneven and doesn't really go anywhere. Catherine Keener is good though, and it does have some funny moments,but it just didn't work for me.
  • aliceinpunderland
    January 14, 2011
    aliceinpunderland
    Once again, Ryan Hibbett, I must disappoint thee. I think Nicole Holofcener has ridden the white-liberal-ennui train end-to-end, all the way to the place where the trains turn around. And trust me, you don't ever want to see where the trains turn around. (A ham-handed HIMYM re... read moreference, I know.)

    As with the rest of her oeuvre, Holofcener's easily hateable characters revel in the muck and mire of their own neuroses. They have too much of everything but don't do enough of anything. Unlike Lovely & Amazing and Friends With Money, however, in which rich people rising up from moneyed oppression are tangential but still poignant subplots, Please Give's entire plot is one nearly squeezed-dry lemon - recycled, reduced, and reused.

    Perhaps I'm being too harsh since the two aforementioned films are such gems in my book. This film isn't terrible. Holofcener's trademark mundanities and little crimes of shame still shine through. Kate breaking down at meeting a mentally-challenged girl with her daughter's name. Alex's never-atoned-for affair with Mary.

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Critic Reviews

Lisa Schwarzbaum
July 6, 2010
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

Keener has become Holofcener's artistic alter ego. In Please Give, the sharp-eyed filmmaker sends her vibrant representative out into the world to explore what it means for a woman to be lucky and sti... Full Review

David Denby
July 6, 2010
David Denby, New Yorker

Life-goes-on movies usually don't electrify the senses, but this one stimulates moral imagination. Full Review

Roger Moore
July 6, 2010
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

Nicole Holofcener, who writes the most interesting female characters in the movies, delivers another dazzling role to her muse, Catherine Keener, in Please Give, a delightfully dry dramedy about guilt. Full Review

Tom Long
June 11, 2010
Tom Long, Detroit News

Happily, the joy outweighs the guilt. Full Review

Chris Vognar
June 4, 2010
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News

Nicole Holofcener is frequently lauded for writing vivid female characters, but such praise doesn't really do justice to her full game. Full Review

Bill Goodykoontz
June 4, 2010
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

Please Give is an almost perfectly rendered slice of life, buoyant with wonderful performances. Full Review

Peter Travers
May 14, 2010
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

There's no movie around right now with a subject more pertinent. It'll hit you hard. Full Review

Ann Hornaday
May 14, 2010
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

Please Give is one of those movies that can be enjoyed simply for its funny portraits of human foibles and fumbling grasps at intimacy -- but it's also deceivingly profound. Full Review

Colin Covert
May 13, 2010
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Holofcener hasn't made a great movie yet, but she hasn't created any bad ones, and her gentle humanism is to be cherished. Full Review

Carrie Rickey
May 13, 2010
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

Some filmmakers make movies that hold up a mirror to nature. Nicole Holofcener makes seriocomedies that hold up a magnifying glass to human nature. Full Review

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