"Please Give"

"Please Give" is not a feel-good movie, because it deals with people who seem to be too true to life. Exactly what it is, is hard to describe. I must say, though, it was fascinating, and troubling, and even funny. It definitely kept me interested. In the opening scenes you get to observe mammograms being given. If you're a woman, you know this is not fun. If you're a male, well, GOK what it will seem to you. The plot revolves around a wealthy married couple who own an up-scale furniture shop, selling at ridiculously high prices the pieces they buy at the cheap from homes of people who have died. They have a fifteen year old daughter who (as you can see in the trailer) resents her mother giving away a 20 dollar bill to a homeless person, but won't buy the kid $200 jeans. Then there's the ninety-something year old woman living next door to them, in an apartment they really want to own just as soon as she dies, so they can expand their current living space. (Of course they feel guilty about that, too, but not a lot.) The old woman, who is pretty feisty, has two granddaughters, one of whom is kind and caring, and the other selfish and nasty. There's probably something for everyone in this movie: infidelity, greed, guilt, selfishness, even a little nice romance for one of the granddaughers, and genuine concern for the homeless and less fortunate among us (up to a point -- and beyond). Really fine acting all around, including the red-haired (except for where the grey shows) nanogenerian. (Is that spelled right?) The married couple are played by Kathryn Keener and Oliver Platt. Splendid work.