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April Burns (Katie Holmes) is the black sheep of the family. At a fairly young age she left home, probably for the sake of everyone else in her family as much as her own. Since then, she has survived without exactly thriving, living in New York City with a series of boyfriends. Her mother, Joy (Patricia Clarkson) is now terminally ill and April hopes to make Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family and possibly mend a few fences.

April is obviously a very different person from the one who caused so much trouble in her younger days. It also is apparent she received as much bad treatment, if not more, than she gave, as evidenced by the memory of her mother saying a cheap set of salt and pepper shakers "are worth more than you are." Most of Pieces of April involves April and her boyfriend Bobby (Derek Luke) preparing dinner and decorating the building for her family's arrival, as well the family's trepidation toward the visit.

While the story sometimes wanders a bit, what keeps it together and makes the whole experience worthwhile are the wonderful performances. Katie Holmes, in particular, has many moments of subtle effectiveness. Through much of the movie, she displays her obvious energy and addictive charm, but there are also moments where she demonstrates a surprising knack for understated dramatic skill. One instance comes late in the film when the pain she feels is silently evident as she, ironically, tends to some wounds on Bobby's face, finishing with a quiet "Shhh." This is not a scene which will be shown during any television interview to demonstrate her acting skill, but it is this kind of moment which, for me, makes movies most enjoyable. It is brief, but great.

Another quiet moment of realization stands out a short time later, as Joy looks at a young girl after her mother has stormed out on her in frustration. It is a long moment of silence as Joy simply watches the hopeless look on the girl's face, until she finally runs away in embarrassment. No doubt Joy is seeing herself and a young April in that moment.

In the end, it is probably these types of cathartic moments which are the greatest strength in Pieces of April. Amidst all the chaos, there are many things which virtually anyone can relate to. Almost everyone has at one time or another felt like an outcast from the people who are supposed to support and love them. April represents a summation of those feelings and her desperate, seemingly hopeless desire to fit back in is almost universally understood.

Clocking in at a brief 81 minutes, including closing credits, Pieces of April is something even the most marginal enthusiast should make a point of seeing. With a PG-13 rating it is relatively clean and suitable viewing for most family members.

Pieces of April is a mix of autobiography by writer/director Peter Hedges and a story he heard about a group of people who decided to cook a Thanksgiving dinner, but found the stove in the apartment they rented for the occasion didn't work. It was shot on High Definition Digital Video with a reported budget of $200,000. The mere fact that any feature film was done for so little is accomplishment in itself, but for it to be this well done and involve actors such as Holmes, Clarkson, Sean Hayes and Oliver Platt is almost impossible to believe. All these highly recognized actors must have forgone pay completely or agreed to residuals only for the film to come in at such a budget. At a time when digital video has often been poorly used in feature films, Pieces of April shows one of its greatest values. There is absolutely no way this film could have been produced for so little money if it were shot on film stock. (This review originally appeared on Slacker-Reviews.com)

Some films take more than one viewing to finally soak in. On my first viewing, "Pieces of April" didn't quite resonate, but on the second time around its charm was able to shine through.

link directly to this review at https://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=6954&reviewer=373
originally posted: 08/06/04 16:25:01
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