Pieces of April (2003) UA/Comedy-Drama RT: 81 minutes Rated R (language, sensuality, drug content, images of nudity) Director: Peter Hedges Screenplay: Peter Hedges Music: Stephin Merritt Cinematography: Tami Reiker Release date: October 17, 2003 (US) Cast: Katie Holmes, Derek Luke, Oliver Platt, Patricia Clarkson, Alison Pill, John Gallagher Jr., Alice Drummond, Sean Hayes, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Lillias White, SisQo, Susan Bruce, Adrian Martinez, Jack Chen, Jacqueline Dai, Rosa Luo, Armando Riesco, Rusty DeWees. Box Office: $3.2M (US)
Rating: ***
I don’t ordinarily like holiday-themed movies involving dysfunctional families. It took me a while to warm up to the Denis Leary Christmas movie The Ref. I tried twice to watch The House of Yes and hated it both times. I still have no desire to rewatch Home for the Holidays. I especially can’t stand the ones in which family members single out one person and gang up on them. I absolutely LOATHE Four Christmases and the way Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon are treated by their families.
This is why I put off watching Pieces of April for so long (12 years). I knew the premise and didn’t want to subject myself to yet another holiday-themed bummer of a movie. Sure enough, there’s plenty of venom being spewed at the titular character played by Katie Holmes (Go), most of it coming from her mother Joy (Clarkson, The Station Agent) who despises her. I had some initial reservations about Pieces of April which dissipated as I caught on to the movie’s offbeat rhythm. It ended up doing something very few movies accomplish; it surprised me. Beneath its outer layer of hate and bitterness, there’s a sense of warmth.
It seems that April has brought nothing but grief and disappointment to her family since she was a child. Now she’s trying to rebuild bridges by inviting them to her place for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s especially important to her since this could be her mother’s last Thanksgiving. She’s dying of breast cancer. Pieces of April has three stories to tell. The first is the Burns’ road trip from the suburbs to Manhattan’s Lower East Side where April shares an apartment with her good-hearted boyfriend Bobby (Luke, Antwone Fisher). There’s a great deal of hostility going on, all of it directed at April. Joy’s been angry at April for so long, it’s unsure if she still knows what she’s angry about. Younger sister Beth (Pill, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is also against going to April’s; she thinks it will be too stressful for her sick mother. Younger brother Timmy (Gallagher, Short Term 12) takes pictures of everything. April’s only supporter is her father, Jim (Platt, The Ice Harvest), who maintains a positive attitude about the whole situation. Also along for the ride is Grandma Dottie (Drummond, In & Out), an Alzheimer’s patient taken to moments of lucidity during which she offers nuggets of wisdom.
The second story, about April’s efforts to make a nice meal for her family, is where the humor of Pieces of April resides. She’s never undertaken such a task before and wants everything to be perfect. She needs to show her family she’s changed. Potential disaster looms in the form of a broken oven. Since nobody’s available to come fix it, she starts knocking on neighbor’s doors asking to borrow their ovens so she can cook her turkey. Naturally, this leads to encounters with some very strange people like the temperamental upstairs neighbor (Hayes, Will & Grace) who hijacks her turkey for a short time.
The third story has Bobby leaving the apartment early to run a mysterious errand. It’s hinted he’s into some shady business. This story amounts to little more than an unnecessary distraction. If anything, it only serves to further perpetuate the negative stereotypes typically attributed to young black men in movies aimed at white middle class audiences. Even worse, his suspicious behavior is totally misleading. Like I said, this story doesn’t amount to anything. It’s just filler really.
Holmes gives perhaps her best performance to date in Pieces of April. She creates a character many of us can relate to. If you’ve ever been (or still are) the black sheep of your family, you’ll recognize and sympathize with April Burns. Here’s a girl who’s made many mistakes (e.g. drugs, legal troubles, loser boyfriends, etc.) and hurt many people in the process. She wants to make amends, to rebuild a relationship with a family that’s seemingly unwilling to give her a fair shake. The lengths to which she goes in order to make a nice Thanksgiving dinner are proof of her sincerity. Equally good is Clarkson as the bitter, acerbic mother. Being close to death has turned off her censor button; she says and does whatever comes to mind. She’s also taken to bizarre behavior like holding an impromptu funeral for a small animal they ran over with the car. Pill’s character is….. well, a real pill. She uses her concern for her mother’s well-being to mask her insecurities at the prospect of no longer being the good daughter. The dynamics between the Burns family are fascinating from a psychological point-of-view.
Pieces of April, directed by Peter Hedges (Dan in Real Life, The Odd Life of Timothy Green), was made on a shoestring budget of $100,000, so it doesn’t have the polish of a conventional Hollywood movie. But I don’t see any major studio jumping at the chance to make a movie like this. This is what independent film is all about. It’s not going to appeal to a wide audience, but those who opt to see it are in for a mostly satisfying viewing experience. At 81 minutes, it’s a bit too short and the ending feels rushed (it’s a montage of photographs). It does have its share of laughs though. It also has something nice to say about the idea of family. Although rough around the edges, Pieces of April is a good movie. I’m sorry it took me so long to get around to watching it, but I’m glad I finally did.
