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The film’s themes walk a strange line between the implicit and the explicit, and Hedges’s idea of nuance is to acknowledge the various pathologies (and diseases) of his characters in only the most roundabout ways. The building’s rainbow coalition seems to exist solely to help April define the meaning of the holiday season but Hedges is more concerned with insulting his characters than he is in evoking the true meaning of family.
PIECES OF APRIL HOW TO
Throughout the film, April gets to know her neighbors: a cat collector who also never got along with his mother the young couple who zones out her pleas for an oven the black couple who ridicules April’s race before sharing their oven and teaching her how to cook an Asian family unfamiliar with the meaning of Thanksgiving and a nelly queen (Sean Hayes, doing a Cajun-fried interpretation of Hannibal Lecter) who lectures the girl on politeness after she makes fun of him. For 80 grueling minutes, the film alternates between April’s attempts to cook a turkey after her stove breaks down and her family’s uncomfortable car ride to the Lower East Side. This gangly, nondescript indie begins with the hip young April (Katie Holmes) attempting to make Thanksgiving dinner for her odious family with the help of her black boyfriend Bobby (Derek Luke). In Pieces of April, writer-director Peter Hedges makes an entertainment out of stringing his audience along.