Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Pieces of April is a neat little indie film from the early 2000s about a dysfunctional family brought together by the occurrence of Thanksgiving and a spot of life-ending cancer. April Burns is the estranged daughter who sends out the invitations for what could be their final holiday dinner together, and to throw an extra spice into the mix, it's also the first meeting with her mysterious boyfriend (he's black, but a slight upgrade on her previous drug-dealing partner. Go figure.). But director Peter Hedges arranges the structure of the movie so that these stories are all separate strands, and when they converge in the end, all past grievances have been aired and resolved. It is the journey there that tells the story; the reunion is just a formality. A young Katie Holmes plays the titular role, and looks the part (although she would be a complete anachronism today): heavy gothic eyeliner, dyed pigtails, a choker and an abundance of irreverence. But beneath that surface brews anxiety, and Holmes frets frequently and appropriately. Just look at her fall to pieces when stumbling across a pair of salt and pepper shakers along with the childhood trauma that accompanies them. She enables the grief to be visible. Her mother by comparison gets the meatier, Oscar-worthy opportunities, able to undercut her nastiness with biting humour. It's Patricia Clarkson's sheer dismissiveness of the situation that makes her such a potent personality; it's her last Thanksgiving, and she's getting as many late shots in as she can. The natural rhythms of the overlapping dialogue in and out of the car assist this aura of toxicity, riffing off each other, then cutting in during the middle of a sentence, bouncing punchlines off egos. Their timing is impeccable, like a comedy troupe in perfect sync. See how Alison Pill splutters a protest when her big-headed brother tries to snap a candid photo of her picking at her teeth, and then as Clarkson cuts in with a sarcasm comment. You can't buy that type of authenticity. Stylistically, Hedges makes the best of his shoestring budget, replacing conventional lighting and camera setups with a handheld grittiness, as if the viewer was a distant cousin awkwardly observing this family reunion like a fly on the wall. It's no Cassavetes, but it works well in stripping away the glamour of their fragmented lives, peering up and around the dinghy corners of April's apartment block. Livolsi cuts with scrappy relish, in one particular occasion overlaying April and Bobby's sweet pillow talk (about the lavish meal they are preparing) with the bickering and chaos of the rest of the Burns family making their way into the city. It's all grainy and the outdoor shots are overexposed, but those have never got in the way of a good story. April's quest to cook her damn turkey doubles as an expansion of her mindset and tolerance, sharing stories and cooking tips with black neighbours and overflowing with gratitude at the Chinese family who lend her the use of their oven, although they don't speak a lick of English. This is all pretty conventional stuff, and although it may be eye-opening for April, it's not exactly groundbreaking or transgressive. Even when Bobby is fretting over making a good impression on his white girlfriend's family, the subtext is mostly text. When he bumps into April's drug-dealing ex, instead of highlighting the irony of how race still is the overpowering stigma, it just becomes a bad comedy sketch. It all ends in a wordless montage set to gentle music and touching snippets of the reconciliation dinner, which is perhaps more than the Burns deserve. See Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married for a similar story that doesn't pull its punches.

No family is perfect and this family is no exception, but there is such beauty in the telling of this story, warts and all. Patricia Clarkson's performances as the bitter, sickly mother is stellar -- you both want to smack her and comfort her. The family car ride to their daughter's flat for Thanksgiving reminds me of the times my family and I spent more time judging our black sheep than finding ways to welcome him back into the fold. This movie was the first time that I had seen Katie Holmes perform and I could tell that she was destined for success. You can feel her raw emotions of trying to go from being a difficult, petulant child to a responsible daughter yearning to be part of her estranged family. Pieces of April is a profound reminder to us all that we should forgive our family "lost causes" before it's too late.

April Burns (Katie Holmes) and her boyfriend Bobby (Derek Luke) are cooking Thanksgiving dinner for her family in her rundown NYC apartment. She discovers their stove doesn't work and she tries desperately to find a working stove. April's mom Joy (Patricia Clarkson) is sick. Her sister Beth (Alison Pill) is annoyingly smothering and doesn't want Thanksgiving at April's. Her brother Timmy (John Gallagher Jr.) got her mother weed. Her father Jim (Oliver Platt) tries hard to keep everybody happy. And Grandma Dottie (Alice Drummond) is losing her memories. April finds help from her neighbors Evette (Lillias White), Eugene (Isiah Whitlock Jr) and weird Wayne (Sean Hayes).This is a small indie from Peter Hedges. The production is strictly low budget hand-held camera work. Katie Holmes isn't stretching too far and does a good job. The family is led by the great Patricia Clarkson. There is a bit of low simmering charm about this. Every once in awhile, it lands a hilarious punch. It doesn't always hit solidly, but it usually leaves you smiling.

April Burns (Katie Holmes) describes herself in a very colorful yet almost tragic way as the "first pancake" (the one you throw away) in the Burns family. The entire movie is about her struggle to prepare a perfect Thanks Giving dinner for her very dysfunctional and very distant (and this is mildly said) family; she somewhat is trying to prove to them that she has forgiven them and she seeks their forgiveness (because she, like all of us, wants to be part of a family), and also that she is all grown up and living a happy, normal-ish life with her boyfriend.While April is trying very hard for her family, the lot is on the road and wishing they had never left home.The end is most surprising and emotional.I was never a fan of Katie Holmes, nor am I now, but this movie is excellent (I might be slightly subjective because I myself am a "first pancake"). I used to work in a movie rental and one day, I just didn't have anything to do and I decided to watch one of the movies I hadn't seen by that time. I chose "Pieces of April", though I hadn't heard about it 'till then, nor have I seen the case on the shelves (which is somewhat weird), because it seemed different than all the others we have. I wasn't wrong, it is different in a good and emotional kind of way. What I liked the most about it is obviously the story and the way it's told ( I refer here to the home-movie aspect). The acting is also pretty good and realistic.You might have nothing to gain watching this movie (depending on what you like), but you certainly have nothing to loose, so, if you can spare a couple of hours...