Pieces of April

Theatrical Release Date: 2003 10 17 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 027616901811

Studio: MGM

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:[Brief Nudity, Adult Language, Sexual Situations, Drug Content]

Summary: Novelist and screenwriter Peter Hedges makes his directorial debut with the comedy drama Pieces of April. Family outcast April Burns (Katie Holmes) lives in a beat-up apartment in New York's Lower East Side with her boyfriend, Bobby (Derek Luke). In order to spend some time with her dying mother, Joy (Patricia Clarkson), April invites her conservative suburban family to her place for a Thanksgiving feast. She discovers that her oven is broken the morning of the big day, so she goes around her tenement building trying to find a sympathetic neighbor with a working oven. Though she doesn't know them, neighbors Eugene (Isiah Whitlock) and Evette (Lillias White) offer the use of their oven, but only for an hour. While she frantically tries to complete the meal, the family drives in from Pennsylvania sharing less-than-pleasant opinions about April's lifestyle. Dad Jim (Oliver Platt) tries to think positively, while daughter Beth (Alison Pill) flaunts her good-girl status and son Timmy (John Gallagher Jr.) captures it all on film. Shot with digital video, Pieces of April is a project of the Independent Film Channel's InDigEnt production company. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Category: Comedy Drama

Awards: Special Jury Prize – Sundance Film Festival Audience Award – Chicago International Film Festival Best Supporting Actress – Boston Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actress – San Francisco Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress – null Best Supporting Actress – Screen Actors Guild Best Supporting Actress – National Board of Review Special Recognition for Excellence in Filmmaking – National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences John Cassavetes Award – Independent Spirit Awards Best Screenplay – Independent Spirit Awards Best Supporting Actress – Independent Spirit Awards Best Supporting Actress – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Moti – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: ccAudio commentary by writer-director Peter Hedges
"All the Pieces Together" featurette
Original theatrical trailer

Pieces of April

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 02/24/2004

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen, 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 80 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. Main Title/Wake Up [6:22]
2. "How You Feeling?" [2:15]
3. Fifty Cents [4:05]
4. Preheating the Oven [4:34]
5. Road to Disaster [2:17]
6. The Girl's Got Problems [3:27]
7. Nothing Special [4:47]
8. Road Kill [2:04]
9. Desperately Seeking Oven [6:56]
10. Latrell [1:36]
11. Joy Happy, Happy Joy [3:34]
12. No More Mr. Helpful [3:35]
13. Mom Before and After [5:27]
14. A Single Nice Memory [4:44]
15. April Calls 911 [3:41]
16. Message From Tyrone [1:35]
17. A Thanksgiving Story [3:23]
18. "They're Here!" [4:35]
19. A Family Meal [5:44]
20. End Credits [5:04]

Perry Seibert

From What's Eating Gilbert Grape to his adaptation of About a Boy, Peter Hedges has specialized in showing the warmth and humanity of oddball outsiders. April (Katie Holmes) most certainly fits into that mode as the black sheep oldest daughter who has invited her suburban family into the big city to make Thanksgiving dinner for them -- even though she has no clue how to cook. The scenes in the apartment building are erratic in quality. For every good scene between April and her kind African-American neighbors, there are dull sequences like the ones involving an oddball who lives upstairs (Sean Hayes in a performance which shows that the first-time director exercised little control over his actors). April's trials and tribulations in preparing the meal are contrasted with her family's trip to the apartment. Hedges the screenwriter so economically establishes everyone in the family in their opening scene that much of what transpires during the first half of their adventures feels redundant. Patricia Clarkson is good as the sarcastic, icy cancer victim mother. You can see why her oldest child attempted to get away from her, and why her two remaining children continuously attempt to one-up each other in her eyes. Oliver Platt gives the best performance in the film as a loving father and family peacemaker, privately on the verge of a complete emotional breakdown at the thought of losing his wife. His character feels like he came from a different and much better movie. Pieces of April provides a fine if uninspired starting point for Hedges' career behind the camera, but it marks a low point in an otherwise stellar career as a screenwriter. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Peter Hedges  Director 
Peter Hedges  Screenwriter 
John Sloss  Executive Producer 
Gary Winick  Producer 
John Lyons  Producer 
Caroline Kaplan  Executive Producer 
Jonathan Sehring  Executive Producer 
Alexis Alexanian  Producer 
Holly Becker  Producer 
Stephin Merritt  Composer (Music Score) 
Katie Holmes  Actor 
Patricia Clarkson  Actor 
Oliver Platt  Actor 
Derek Luke  Actor 
Alison Pill  Actor 
John Gallagher, Jr.  Actor 
Alice Drummond  Actor 
Sean Hayes  Actor 
Sisqo  Actor 
Lillias White  Actor 
Isiah Whitlock, Jr.  Actor 

Country: USA