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Critics Consensus: Pieces of April transcends its small-scale setting and budget with endearing performances, playful humor, and genuine sweetness, resulting in a touching holiday treat.
Critic Consensus: Pieces of April transcends its small-scale setting and budget with endearing performances, playful humor, and genuine sweetness, resulting in a touching holiday treat.
All Critics (150) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (126) | Rotten (24) | DVD (14)
Thanksgiving just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a dysfunctional family reunion, but writer-director Peter Hedges comes up with an original take on the holiday disaster theme in the quiet gem Pieces of April.
Laughter and poignancy go hand in hand in this DV debut whose comedy that may be standard, but never ceases to deliver sharp, dark laughs.
Pieces of April is built around the tired premise of a dysfunctional family's Thanksgiving get-together, but -- surprise -- it's fresh.
Longer on calculating sourness than on psychologically organic wit.
It's in the cross-cutting between April's disaster-prone preparations and her family's turbulent journey that Hedges's movie finds its lively and likeable rhythm.
This is one of those quietly wonderful films that really deserves an audience.
It's interesting to see Holmes in something like this, which gives an edge to her usual cute and cloying persona.
Thought-provoking, engaging; mid-teens and older.
Peter Hedges sustains the idea this family's interactions have begun with bared teeth for years. If they can summon it, one comforting moment will have to do. At best, it's a ramshackle reconciliation of tough-minded emotion and well-earned laughter.
An entertaining character study with the holiday theme...
April's cranberry sauce may be canned but the laughter and tears of an affecting, unsentimental coda are real.
Pieces of April has its heart in the right place, and while it may not always be entirely successful, marks a promising debut for a talented filmmaker.
A one part great movie and one part bad movie. The storylines of Derek Luke and Katie Holmes are perfect and extremely well done, while the scenes with the family are the same cliche seen over and over. I think what also works extremely well is the cinematography and documentary look. It feels like you're living in this apartment building and taking a look at a real place rather than fiction. Overall, it works. It's just not as good as it theoretically could have been.
Super Reviewer
I've wanted to see this movie for a while. It was definitely enjoyable. I'm starting to like these quirky, independent, true-to-life movies more than the big action blockbusters actually. You could feel the awkwardness of both sides of the family through the television.
Katie Holmes was impressive. I love that Peter Hedges takes the simple event of Thanksgiving dinner and paints an extremely thorough picture of it. Quirky and delicious.
The surprisingly refreshing story of a family estranged from their daughter, April. April has been a "screw-up" and a "misfit" and she never seems to do anything right. The family thinks that she is just trying to make them mad and maybe she was..., but now she is trying to put it back together. YES...you have seen this plot before in many incarnations, but not through these eyes. If you watch the movie you will find that the subject hits close to home for the writer/director. Also, the vehicle used to speak to helping one another is truly unique (the oven/turkey...you'll get it when you see the movie). Great performances by Patricia Clarkson and Oliver Platt. Solid performance from Katie Holmes. Enjoy!
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