From the director of Friends With Money.
Please Give is vintage Holofcener, focusing on women with self-esteem issues. Things go a little soft at the end, but the performances never waver.
Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) are waiting with increasing impatience for their elderly neighbour to die so they can purchase her apartment. They also run a vintage store, whose ethics Kate is beginning to question.
When their neighbour’s granddaughters – lonely Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) and bitchy, tanning-bed-addicted Mary (Amanda Peet) – come into their lives, they challenge the couple in surprising ways. It’s another reminder that Keener’s one of America’s most gifted screen actors.
– Susan G. Cole, NOW Toronto