This probably showed up in my Netflix queue after I watched Please Give, enjoyed Oliver Platt, and proceeded to add anything Platt that I could. Platt plays a supporting role as April's (Katie Holmes) father. April lives in Manhattan with her boyfriend Bobby. They have invited the entire family to their place for thanksgiving. The film is really two different stories: that of April preparing for the family to arrive and that of the family driving from upstate NY into the city for the meal. April (of course) encounters problems with cooking her first ever turkey and gets to meet a bunch of neighbors in the process. The family tiptoes around mom's health, grandma's senility and a pretty open disdain for April. In fact, the common theme through these stories is that both April and the family are processing April's role in the family. The beauty of the film is that the heaviness of family dysfunction is balanced by the comedy of family dysfunction (a la Little Miss Sunshine without the keystone cops routine). Very well done and the fact that the sound track is full of The Magnetic Fields pushes this into the 5-star category.
5 stars (out of 5)
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It has been two days but this film is still hanging around in my head. It is my favorite kind of story with disparate people coming together and creating surprising friendships. And Bobby is VBBE--Very Best Boyfriend Ever.
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