Pieces of April

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is in the top five of my all-time favorite movies, and I've enjoyed the novels of screenwriter Peter Hedges as well, so when I heard a few years ago he was writing & directing a movie about a family on Thanksgiving, I knew I wanted to see it. I simply didn't get around to doing so until now. I can honestly say I'm appreciative, yet disappointed. As often happens when novelists-turned-screenwriters then become directors, his first feature occasionally loses sight of the story it's telling in favor of the ideas he wants to get across. One might think those two go hand in hand, but, not always.

Katie Holmes is really good as April, a girl in a small New York apartment trying to put together a Thanksgiving dinner for her less-than-enthusiastic family, who is driving in from New Jersey. Much of the film covers April's quest to find a neighbor willing to let her use their stove when hers fails to heat up, as well as her family's ongoing reluctance to follow through on their holiday visit as they drive to the city. I liked all of this, up to the point when they finally reach her apartment building. Appalled at the state of the neighborhood, they think they must be in the wrong place, until April's boyfriend Bobby runs up to the car and says hey, you must be April's family, I'm Bobby...what they don't know is that Bobby has spent the day finding a new suit, so he can look nice when they show up, but has just been forced to defend himself against April's previous boyfriend and four other guys...and we come to the point that really bugged me about the movie.

This white family sees a black guy in a torn suit with a bloody lip in front of this crappy apartment...and they leave. April comes down to find no one there; they've driven off. Why? I don't get it. They spent the whole trip there saying how they knew the day would be terrible, that April can't cook, and no one in this family seems to get along, but they were going to do it anyway and try to make a good memory. So why the sudden change? Why the departure? What is it about a black guy with a bloody lip and a bruised face that scares them off? Is that all it takes? I'm not saying this is in any way a racist development in the plot, but...considering how they knew things would not go well, this doesn't seem a strong enough motivation to scare them off. And I see it as the writer taking the story the way he wants it to go, when the story itself simply isn't going that way.

This is a common flaw in first features directed by writers, especially those who started as novelists and eventually became filmmakers. It's not a horrible film by any means; it's really quite enjoyable. I just hate to see a story derailed by its own author. And once the family realizes their mistake, they do turn around and go back, and make an effort, and seem to have a decent time, and the movie ends. By no means do I see this as condescending to an audience; it's nowhere near that bad. It simply doesn't feel like a natural progression to me. I think they needed something more devastating, more shocking to turn them around. They even discuss earlier how April has informed them Bobby is a good guy, so how can they simply turn around upon viewing him in that state?

I'm sorry to reveal the later moments of the film, for anyone reading this who hasn't seen it, but trust me; if you would have enjoyed it not knowing this, it won't be ruined for you. As for me, I'm hoping Peter Hedges' second feature, Dan in Real Life, now in theaters, has a better throughline to the story. I also hope I don't end up waiting four years to check it out.