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“Pieces of April” tells two stories that will eventually meet up. On one side, we have the young, cute April (Katie Holmes), a girl in her early twenties living on her own in a run-down apartment in New York with her boyfriend Bobby (Derek Luke). It’s Thanksgiving Day and April, for whatever reason, has decided to host. Her family will be showing up later in the afternoon and April must try and have dinner ready by the time they get there. Of course, she has never hosted anything like this before, so naturally the cranberries must come out of the can (a big no-no, unless you live in a trailer).

The other story concerns April’s family. Her mother, Joy (Patricia Clarkson), has cancer and has to stop the car every so often to relieve herself. Her doting husband, Jim (Oliver Platt), tries to keep the tone positive, even though their two teenage kids, Timmy (John Gallagher, Jr.) and Beth (Alison Pill) dread the prospect of having to drive all the way up to the city to spend Thanksgiving with the black sheep of the family. Along the way, they pick up the grandmother Dottie (Alice Drummond), who of course has no idea what’s happening (or does she?).

Like “Home For the Holidays,” “Pieces of April” gets to the roots of a dysfunctional family by using Thanksgiving as a backdrop. We go through the traditional customs of these holidays for the sole purpose of creating memories. It occurs to this family as they drive to New York that they have very few good memories about April. She got caught shoplifting, she moved out of the house as fast as she could and, from what we can see, she doesn’t seem to have grown up that much. But what we can see that her family cannot is that she has been making an effort.

Katie Holmes plays April in what could have been a Lucy skit performance. April learns a little too late that her oven might not be in the best condition to cook her turkey. Through this situation, April gets to meet those who live in her apartment complex by way of asking if she could borrow their oven for the afternoon. Holmes, while keeping her composure, proves that she can carry a movie on her own. April is a sad, but determined spirit who is stubborn about getting everything right, even if she remains flexible on the means. Miraculously, the movie never breaks into a sitcom. It remains a thoughtful, witty and dead-on portrait of a family coming to terms with its identity as one of its members faces death.

“Pieces of April” clocks in at a mere 81 minutes and warrants only one complaint: It features an annoying trend in casting an elderly actor. By having the Grandmother stereotypically vacant and senile, the movie shortchanges itself. We’ve seen this character much too often and I think there has to be more for elderly actors to do than just be a cardboard cut-out of a forgetful senior citizen. Still, “Pieces of April” is impossible to resist. The cast couldn’t be better and the relationship between April and Bobby works wonderfully. I wouldn’t have minded if the movie ran a bit longer, but I’m truly thankful for what we have nonetheless.

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originally posted: 09/30/03 09:17:27
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