My wife and I just finished watching Pieces of April, a movie made in 2003 starring Katie Holmes (before she married Tom Cruise and could actually be in movies). The show is about a girl named April (Holmes) who leads a rebellious life and has been estranged from her family for many years. He mother is terminally ill, however, and she invites her family to New York City – a five hour drive from their suburban home – to join her for Thanksgiving dinner and try to salvage any kind of relationship that had been damaged in the past.
Most of the movie chronicles two storylines. One is April’s adventure in attempting to make a Thanksgiving dinner that won’t completely disappoint her family. This is entertaining because she doesn’t really cook. Due to a broken oven, she is also forced to go door to door in her apartment complex asking if she can borrow people’s ovens to cook her Turkey. Along the way she makes plenty of new friends and even learns to cook a bit. The other plotline focuses on her family and their trip to New York. None of them really want to visit April because of all her past misgivings, but a feeling of obligation drives them to visit, especially if it’s the last time she’s able to see her mother. Their trip is full of surprises, which is representative of the entire show. April and her family are only together at the end of the show for a minute or two, but their separate journeys to get to that point are worth watching, and the resolution is satisfying.
This film was both quirky and sad at times, and it effectively conveyed the feelings of a family trying to find the desire to be together despite life’s mistakes and tribulations. Every family deals with difficult times, but small and deliberate expressions of love go a long way to healing any past wounds. Pieces of April is a short film (only 75 minutes), but it is also though-provoking and well worth an hour of anyone’s time.
Pieces of April trailer
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