Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 30, 2010
7.5
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Generally favorable reviews based on 64 Ratings
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50
Mixed:
12
Negative:
2
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5
DeathrompMar 23, 2011
There seems to be something profoundly disturbing, and achingly modern (in the worst way) to Please Give - for one the dialogue works because itâ
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6
NancyG.May 30, 2010
Disappointing movie! The reviews had me hoping for a really good film, but this was dull, depressing, and not really funny.
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4
TedBJun 6, 2010
Sweet, but ultimately boring and inconsequential.
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5
SecretAgentGalSep 19, 2010
Nicole Holofcener writes and directs Please Give, a tart, touching indie drama about generosity and selfishness. Holofcener (Lovely & Amazing, Friends With Money) explores familiar territory in her latest film, showing the comedy and pathosNicole Holofcener writes and directs Please Give, a tart, touching indie drama about generosity and selfishness. Holofcener (Lovely & Amazing, Friends With Money) explores familiar territory in her latest film, showing the comedy and pathos of haves and have nots in Manhattan.

Women's breasts are readied for scanning by mammogram technician Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) in the striking opening scene. Pale, serious Rebecca comforts and assists an unending parade of patients. A compulsive giver, she's not receiving much. Rebecca lives with her elderly grandmother and rarely goes out, not even to see the fall foliage upstate. To her, breasts are neither beautiful nor repulsive, but "tubes that can get infected."

Holofcener shows the interplay between two Manhattan families, reflecting America's uneasy balance of wealth and poverty. Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) are a wealthy couple that resell contemporary antiques in their city showroom. The two live and work together all day long, an arrangement bound to strain any marriage. Adding to that tension is Kate as she plunks $20 bills into the hand of any homeless person she meets. Opportunities to profit and feel guilty about it abound as Kate and Alex acquire estate furniture bargains from grieving adults. Meanwhile their 15-year-old daughter Abby (refreshing Sarah Steele) begs for a pair of $200 designer jeans.

Living next door is 91-year-old Andra (Ann Guilbert, who played nosy neighbor Millie Helper on the Dick Van Dyke Show). In space-hungry Manhattan, Kate and Alex have already purchased Andra's apartment and plan to expand their living space after she dies. Meanwhile they are genuinely polite to the cantankerous neighbor and her granddaughters Rebecca (Hall) and sexpot Mary (Amanda Peet). Peet (Somethingâ
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