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Please Give (2010)

tomatometer

87

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 133
Fresh: 116 | Rotten: 17

Nicole Holofcener's newest might seem slight in places, but its rendering of complex characters in a conflicted economic landscape is varied, natural, and touching all the same.

79

Average Rating: 7/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 7

Nicole Holofcener's newest might seem slight in places, but its rendering of complex characters in a conflicted economic landscape is varied, natural, and touching all the same.

audience

62

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 10,391

My Rating

Movie Info

A family looking for some extra space gets drawn into a difficult relationship with the folks next door in this comedy drama from writer and director Nicole Holofcener. Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) are a couple living in New York City who run a successful store specializing in vintage furniture. Kate and Alex have a teenage daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele) and their apartment is starting to feel a bit small for the three of them; Kate and Alex own the unit next door to them, and

R, 1 hr. 30 min.

Comedy

Nicole Holofcener

Oct 19, 2010

$4.0M

Sony Pictures Classics

Cast

All Critics (133) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (116) | Rotten (17) | DVD (2)

Keener has become Holofcener's artistic alter ego. In Please Give, the sharp-eyed filmmaker sends her vibrant representative out into the world to explore what it means for a woman to be lucky and still feel itchy.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Nicole Holofcener, who writes the most interesting female characters in the movies, delivers another dazzling role to her muse, Catherine Keener, in Please Give, a delightfully dry dramedy about guilt.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment (1)
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Life-goes-on movies usually don't electrify the senses, but this one stimulates moral imagination.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: New Yorker | Comment
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Happily, the joy outweighs the guilt.

June 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Nicole Holofcener is frequently lauded for writing vivid female characters, but such praise doesn't really do justice to her full game.

June 4, 2010 Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | Comment
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Please Give is an almost perfectly rendered slice of life, buoyant with wonderful performances.

June 4, 2010 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | Comment
Arizona Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

You have to be smart and funny and really aware of yourself to write and direct a film like this, which is exactly what director Nicole Holofcener is.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Movies.com | Comment
Movies.com

Doesn't have much plot, just characters interacting and developing, and its lack of a need for drama is refreshing.

January 25, 2011 Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews | Comment
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

Its conclusions are thoughtful and non-judgmental; satisfying even if it pulls a few punches.

September 10, 2010 Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National | Comment (1)
MovieTime, ABC Radio National

Holofcener takes pretty much everything you're not supposed to talk about at a dinner party and spins it into a ruefully awkward, bone-dry comedy.

September 9, 2010 Full Review Source: Concrete Playground | Comment
Concrete Playground

The film is more emotionally incisive than it initially appears to be, but equally it ties together a little too neatly when it already has such a concise running time.

September 9, 2010 Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | Comment (1)
sbs.com.au

Keener never lets us lose sight of something possibly redeemable about Kate, a move which ultimately saves her performance from lapsing into an easy social caricature.

September 9, 2010 Full Review Source: Herald Sun (Australia) | Comment (1)
Herald Sun (Australia)

Please Give isn't laugh-out-loud funny, it is witty and clever-a pleasing tale where not much happens, but spending time with the film's characters is enough.

September 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Trespass | Comment
Trespass

The main problem with the film, though, is that it seems to assume that self-obsessed and charmless people are automatically interesting - just for being people. There's definitely a flaw in that logic.

September 7, 2010 Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | Comment (1)
FILMINK (Australia)

It's involving and often gripping with wonderful performances by a top cast, although the sum of its parts is less than the story as a whole

September 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

The film lives at that uneasy intersection between affluence and compassion, where the well-meaning well-to-do try to figure out how much of their wealth they need to give away to make a difference.

August 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Wisconsin State Journal | Comment (1)
Wisconsin State Journal

Writer-director Nicole Holofcener seems to get better with every film, and now she's cruising along the well-trodden path of neurotic New Yorker comedy-drama with grace and comely confidence.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment
Sacramento News & Review

Please Give is quintessential Holofcener -- a loopy, episodic ensemble story of women dealing with marriage, money and men, but it's also her smartest, most disciplined movie to date.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Daily News | Comment (1)
Philadelphia Daily News

Keener, one of the most reliably entertaining actresses currently working, specializes in sardonic, flawed characters -- a perfect fit for Holofcener's image of the modern American woman.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | Comment (1)
EricDSnider.com

Holofcener writes, and helps to shape on-screen, characters we often don't even like, and what do we do? We invite them home with us. Talk about a soft touch.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Movieline | Comment
Movieline

A stroll with these characters is a refreshing break from from the usual film exercises.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | Comment (1)
Austin Chronicle

The acting quality is strong, especially from the ever-reliable Catherine Keener as Kate, but it's almost impossible to care about her character's dilemmas.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Eye for Film | Comments (2)
Eye for Film
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Please Give

Here you have a one trick pony - something perhaps better suited as a TV sitcom... and it plays like one, sad to say. There's very little character development with each character a cardboard bit of archtype, providing very little tension as it slickly moves from predictable plot thread to predictable plot thread. In

November 7, 2011
maxthesax
paul sandberg

Super Reviewer

I think that Nicole Holofcener has my kind of humor, that sort of mean-spirited, abrupt, non sequitur kind where you laugh really hard and then immediately afterward feel really bad for laughing. And I also like that there's always a tint of melancholy spotted in every stretch of dialogue, no matter what the mood. It

May 1, 2011
jennifxu

Super Reviewer

    1. Andra: You gained weight. You gained weight.
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)
    1. Alex: We buy from the children of dead people.
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)

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