Please Give

Nicole Holofcener extends sympathy to all her characters, however annoying they may be.  In Friends With Money, that seemed way more sympathy than they deserved, but here the neurosis and affection are in better balance.  As usual, Catherine Keener is right on the writer-director’s wavelength, as a guilty liberal trying to give away the money she makes with a business that seems ethically questionable to herself.  She and hubby Oliver Platt own a vintage furniture store, which they stock by buying up the contents of apartments of dead old people, from their unknowing children.  They’re waiting to take over the apartment of their next-door neighbor when she dies, and they become involved with the granddaughters who take care of her, deliciously played by Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet.  Ann Guilbert is hilarious as the straight-talking old lady, and Sarah Steele is also good as the acne-plagued teenage daughter of Keener and Platt.  With well-judged but low-key direction, the entire ensemble is delightful and the whole nicely balances wit and warmth, with enough truth to lift the comedy beyond the situation.  (2010, MC-78)