Kate and Alex (Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt) are vultures, preying on the dead, purchasing their furniture and selling it for profit. Like the vultures in the animal kingdom food chain, they serve a purpose as part of a financial subsistence.

The film capturing this ecosystem, Please Give, doesn’t make judgments about them. Kate, rather, judges herself. Her guilt, part of this cycle, is becoming a guiding principle in her decisions and her relationships with others. Her handouts to the homeless are increasing, she takes stabs at volunteering, she won’t give in about her daughter’s (Sarah Steele, perfect) wish for designer jeans, she purchases no-value furniture out of pity. Kate is wonderfully drawn and not always likeable, as is the case with many of the alive and layered characters in Please Give. While the film has been read by a lot of critics of a story about affluent guilt, it is so much more due to these deep characters and a story that is bursting with themes – age, beauty, guilt, value, family – and how they add up to a world that keeps New York’s heart beating.

The film opens with a sequence close-ups of mammograms and distinguishes itself immdediately as a film that will deal with women differently than other contemporary films. The film ends with a final scene that is truly brilliant, all the more so for being incredibly simple. Between these bookends is director Nicole Holofcener achieving beyond her previous works. While Lovely & Amazing and Friends With Money hinted at her gifts, Please Give is miles beyond. Tender and brutal, full of honesty and thoroughly engaging, Please Give is an important new American work.