Pieces of April *** (2003, Katie Holmes, Oliver Platt, Patricia Clarkson, Sean Hayes, Derek Luke, Alison Pill) – Classic Movie Review 7909

Writer-director Peter Hedges’s 2003 Pieces of April stars Katie Holmes as flaky punk April Burns, whose family is coming to Thanksgiving dinner. But her oven is broken and she cannot cook, so she seeks help from the neighbours – including creepy Wayne (Sean Hayes from Will & Grace).

This touching, warm-natured and generous-spirited low-budget comedy gets right to the heart and funny bone, with plenty of will and grace of its own. Patricia Clarkson is superb as Katie’s dying mother and scored an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Also in the cast are Derek Luke, Oliver Platt, Alison Pill, John Gallagher Jr, Alice Drummond, Lillias White, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Sisqô, and Armando Riesco.

Pieces of April is directed by Peter Hedges, runs 80 minutes, is made by IFC, InDigEnt, Kalkaska, is released by MGM/United Artists, is written by Peter Hedges, is shot by Tami Reiker, is produced by Alexis Alexanian, John S Lyons and Gary Winick and is designed by Rick Butler.

It is Hedges’s first film as director, followed by Dan in Real Life, The Odd Life of Timothy Green and Ben Is Back (2018). He is an Oscar nominee for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (shared) for About a Boy (2002). He is the father of actor Lucas Hedges, an Oscar nominee for Manchester by the Sea (2016).

Katie Holmes married Tom Cruise on 18 November 2006 and divorced him on 20 August 2012. They had one child.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7909

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