Review: Holmes miscast in touching family film

I love Katie Holmes, but she’ll always be Joey Potter, the
sweet, preternaturally pretty girl next door who was forever torn
between Dawson and Pacey. Holmes, fearing that she would be
pigeonholed by “Dawson’s Creek,” has long sought
to challenge her good-girl persona by taking on edgier roles in
films like “Disturbing Behavior,” “Go” and
“The Gift.”

In “Pieces of April,” Holmes takes perhaps her
biggest leap of all. She plays former delinquent April Burns who,
after learning that her estranged mother is dying of cancer,
decides to make Thanksgiving dinner for the family she hasn’t
seen in years. The film is a sweet meditation on what it truly
means to be a family.

Those who are still crying about the end of
“Dawson’s Creek” might have to look elsewhere for
their Holmes fix. To her credit, Holmes sinks her teeth into the
role, but she is miscast as the edgy April. Also trying his best in
an ill-fitting role is Oliver Platt, who looks far too young as
April’s father, Jim. Patricia Clarkson shows off her
versatility in the role of April’s mother, Joy, who is tired
of everyone tip-toeing around her fatal illness. Alison Pill, as
April’s diabolical sister Beth, quickly crosses the line from
amusingly bitchy into downright grating.

The film’s bright spots are Derek Luke, as April’s
long-suffering boyfriend Bobby who would do anything to help her,
and Sean Hayes as April’s neighbor Wayne. Hayes’
passive-aggressive turn as a hermit is almost unrecognizable from
his role as the manic Jack on “Will and Grace.”

The film’s most amusing moments take place as April,
searching desperately for a working stove, tries to bond with her
neighbors. Even a Chinese family, who speaks little English and has
never heard of Thanksgiving, helps her because, we are meant to
surmise, the bonds of family are universal.

“Pieces of April” is the directing debut of Peter
Hedges, who wrote the novel and screenplay for “What’s
Eating Gilbert Grape” and was nominated for an Oscar for
co-writing “About a Boy.” Hedges’ strength is his
exploration of how families hold each other up even as they seem to
break each other down. He wrote “Pieces of April” in
memory of his mother who died of cancer, and the film succeeds as a
loving tribute.

Hedges’ directing is rough around the edges. In perhaps
the film’s greatest flaw, the digital cameras with which it
was shot cause it to take on the look of a home movie.
“Pieces of April” may be slight, but Hedges still shows
definite promise as a director.

– Johanna Davy