Every day until March 31, 2024 I will be watching and reviewing a movie that is 90 minutes or less.
Title: Pieces of April
Release Date: October 17, 2003
Director: Peter Hedges
Production Company: IFC Productions | InDigEnt Productions | Kalkaska Productions
Summary/Review:
I’m not sure this is the movie I meant to watch but it turns out to be an enjoyable indie family comedy-drama of the type that’s not made anymore. Even in 2003 it would’ve felt a little old fashioned (like, nobody in this movie uses a cellphone and that makes if feel a longer than 20 years ago). April Burns (Katie Holmes) lives in a small NYC apartment and is estranged from her family. When she learns her mother has breast cancer and may not live another year, she invites her family to her place for Thanksgiving dinner. April struggles to make dinner but gets help from her multi-ethnic neighbors.
Meanwhile her mother Joy (Patricia Clarkson), father Jim (Oliver Platt), sister Beth (Allison Pill), brother Timmy (John Gallagher Jr.), and grandmother Dottie (Alice Drummond) encounter various misadventures driving into the city (ironically not encountering any of the traffic congestion one would find entering New York on Thanksgiving). This part reminds me a lot of The Daytrippers. April is supposed to be the black sheep of the family but the more we see of them the more I wonder how she became a decent person coming from such truly awful people. But family is family and this film is about a reconciliation of sorts.
Rating: ***
Panorama of the Mountains 
I always liked this movie, and bought the DVD. I think of it every Thanksgiving, I think because she was making a turkey for the family, and her oven didn’t work, or something like that. It’s been awhile since I saw it. :)
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Yes, she has to move her turkey from one neighbor’s oven to the next. It’s very funny.
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