The Last Movie I Saw

I have to admit that, until a couple days ago, I never saw a Nicole Holofcener film (the best known of which are probably Lovely and Amazing and Friends With Money). My excuse is that the previews generally made me think I knew exactly what they would be about, and I wasn't interested in seeing those presumptions play out. Part of my impression was that her work clearly fit the "chick flick" category, and while I'm not one to dismiss such films out-of-hand, there wasn't anything compelling (again, from what I saw in previews or read in reviews) to think that Holofcener's movies were anything but sui generis. I didn't have that reaction to the trailer for Please Give, though I can't put my finger on exactly what it was that made it appear to be anything more. It's a charming film, with a great cast (Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, and Rebecca Hall in the major roles), on a theme (nurture) that no doubt earns the "chick flick" label even as it stretches the concept in such a way as to avoid the sort of cloying or saccharine elements that could make such a subject unwatchably sweet. A lot of the credit for this goes to Keener, who plays the most conflicted character with respect to working out the proper balance between generosity and the sort of defenses that are necessary to function in a tough world, where unchecked empathy can be both heartbreaking and potentially self-defeating. It's definitely a feel-good movie in the end, but it arrives at that destination without hammering the audience over the head with its good intentions, which I certainly appreciated.