Now imagine all of those fuckers coming to have Thanksgiving in your tiny shithole Brooklyn apartment. And you're the family screwup, and your hateful mother is dying of cancer. Sounds fun, yes? And actually, on paper, that doesn't really sound like much of an interesting film, or even all that tolerable. But Hedges, who wrote What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, has crafted a small, simple, funny, and touching story of a family coming together despite being pretty much unfixable. Katie Holmes stars as April, the troubled youth who offers to make Thanksgiving for her mother (Patricia Clarkson), father (Oliver Platt), shy brother, uptight younger sister, and Alzheimer's-suffering grandmother (the librarian lady from Ghostbusters). The film tracks April's efforts to get her turkey made against all odds, because she's never cooked as much as an oatmeal, and her oven's broke. Her attempts to get help from the colorful neighbors (sarcastic black couple, Asians who don't speak English, lesbian vegan, uptight faggo, etc.) is intercut with her family's journey from the distant burbs, struggling to deal with the mother's sickness as well as their group ambivalence about going to see the black sheep of the family. Performances all around are excellent, as would be expected from Clarkson and Platt, who's such a great fat actor it's unbelievable. If only he were young enough to play Fatty Arbuckle, now that'd be a movie I'd go see (but only if they had a scene of him getting stuck in a bathtub and being buried in a piano case … wait, that was Taft). Derek Luke turns in surprisingly heartfelt work as April's negro boyfriend who you think might be murdered when he ventures out on a mysterious errand. And Sean Hayes is laugh-out-loud funny as an uptight semi-gay neighbor who holds the turkey hostage after April snubs him. Holmes is also very good and exceptionally sexy/cute in her artsy dress and pigtails. Frankly, I'd have enjoyed seeing more of her pieces of April (breasts and vagina), if you catch my drift. At times the film is cutesy and somewhat unbelievable, but the dialogue and characters are strong enough that it holds together. And though you know it ultimately has to be about redemption and forgiveness, you're really not sure how it'll play out, or what might happen if it takes a sharp left turn. The final scene of everyone sitting down to dinner could have been extremely corny but because it's really been earned and it's shot so well, it actually works. And stay tuned for the after-credits scene of Katie Holmes taking a triumphant shower with her favorite sex toy. Gratuitous but highly necessary.
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