The Anti-Greenberg
PLEASE GIVE
Directed by Nicole Holofcener
Runtime: 90 min.
White guilt is so out-of-fashion that Nicole Holofceners Please Give invokes charity instead. It takes on the obscure subject of self-aware people who cannot rise above their class advantages yet are, in fact, weakened by them. Kate (Catherine Keener) feels compelled to give money to homeless people loitering outside her Village condominium. She runs a Manhattan antiques shop with her husband Alex (Oliver Platt), and plans to expand their apartment into the space occupied by an elderly, near-death neighbor (Ann Guilbert). The neighbors physical frailtyand her very nearnessunnerves Kate, much as it exasperates the old ladys granddaughters, Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) and Mary (Amanda Peet). All these unfulfilled womens interactionscautious, fractious, embarrassment-pronereveal a common apprehension. It has much to do with being female, privileged, white.
Those are not necessarily Holofceners themes, but she makes these facts plain. This puts Holofcener in a different sphere from so many New York-centric filmmakers who simply take status for granted (recalling Jordan Bakers line in The Great Gatsby: Were all white here). With each character, Holofceners honest, gentle humor goes just below the skin of their armor-like privilege. Theres a priceless moment when Kate insults a man standing outside a restaurant by handing him money. He looked homeless, she explains. Her husband clarifies: He looked like a black man waiting for a table.
Holofcener uncannily combines racism and classism and sympathy. Even the least likable character, Mary, who snaps at her elder, upbraids her sister and condescends to everyone, embodies a recognizable pathos. Mary is one of those white bourgies who cannot appreciate her own tall, glamorous favor. She epitomizes the weakness of privilege (and, so, tans a lot).
Please Give is so full of feeling it advances past TVs Seinfeld, which mainstream media labeled about nothing rather than accept its satirical mirror image. The accuracy of Holofceners mirror also distinguishes Please Give from the loathsome class comedy Greenberg. None of Holofceners characters push their intelligence, attitude or circumstance against another; theyre all equally sad, equally humanand so are not repellant. Holofcener shows a generosity of spirit, unlike Noah Baumbachs arrogance. Please Give is specific about its middle-class, white, Manhattan characters but its also universal in the way one social class anxieties are understood rather than simply celebrated. The essence of Greenberg was about in-group narcissism but Holofcener reveals an unease that is widespread and relatable.
When Holofceners first film, Walking and Talking, was released in 1995, it was long before Gen X wannabes cocooned themselves in mumblecore. Holofcener, like Whit Stillman, belonged to that generation of indie filmmakers who saw the world in original, personal terms with an implied social awareness. They avoided the arriviste snobbery that infected Woody Allens films and now Baumbachs. Like Stillmann, Holofcener scrutinizes the complex emotions and subtle ideologies that make their characters smart but diffident. Such complexity has become old-fashioned replaced by egotism. But Please Give brings back a song by The Roches (No Shoes) that typifies how poignantly arranged voicesharmoniescan be used to tease the self-defenses of modern sophisticates. It is a jovial, more grown-up approach than Andrew Bujalskis recent mumblecore flick Beeswax (a story about two actual sisters that never got beyond itself). For Holofcener, all the characters are sisters; they stumble and deceive and desire in familiar terms of anguish, remorse and confused love.
Holofcener parallels their conflicts starting with a montage of breast exams at the clinic where Rebecca works. Only a true indie filmmaker would attempt this boldly naked levelingits a funny and unsettling jest showing what makes us both eccentric and the same. Thats also Holofceners method when the insult Shes a bitch applies to Mary as well as the grandmother. Of course, nobody plays a bitch better than Catherine Keener, yet Kate is the most conciliatory role Keeners ever had. Once again enacting Holofceners alter ego, Keener shows the layers of conflict beneath what others might consider bitchiness. Kates a rare New York movie character who cannot dismiss her good fortune and so relents to charity as a way of satisfying her private shame. This is pinpointed when Kate volunteers to work with handicapped children. A social worker advises, We try to be as upbeat and positive as we can. Only Keener could make the impossibility so poignant.
Please Give may be Holofceners best movie. Its funny/sad harmonies are such a good achievement that she obviously had to make the mess of Friends With Moneywith its confused contrasts of luxury and stress to arrive at this clarity. Too bad she had to sacrifice the films style; the photography by Yaron Orbach doesnt appreciate the delicacy of sunlight that should be a real quality in a film so nuanced about New York apartment life. The films subject demands a warmer visual tone, yet Orbachs crude lighting seems to object to the characters very fleshfrom tits to zits. Given Holofceners insights about womanhood, she neednt shy away from being visually flattering. Her only misstep is an aural joke when Kate returns a sellers family heirloomit recalls one of the most devastating moments in Altmans Short Cuts yet uses Altmans rich cynicism cynically. If it was an attempt to avoid sentimentality as tantamount to guilt, Holofcener shouldnt worry; her view of the white condition is far more humane than Woody Allens or Noah Baumbachs.