Kate Steele

A family looking for some extra space gets drawn into a difficult relationship with the folks next door in this comedy-drama from writer and director Nicole Holofcener. Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) are a couple living in New York City who run a successful store specializing in vintage furniture. Kate and Alex have a teenage daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele) and their apartment is starting to feel a bit small for the three of them; Kate and Alex own the unit next door to them, and once the flat becomes vacant, they plan to knock out a wall and take over the space. However, Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert), their tenant, is an elderly woman with a poor disposition who doesn't seem eager to go anywhere soon, and it's occurred to Kate and Alex that they're probably going to have wait for her to die, since evicting her would be very awkward. Hoping to make the best of the situation, Kate tries to strike up a friendship with Andra and her fiercely protective granddaughter Rebecca (Rebecca Hall), but Andra isn't especially interested in making new friends, and Rebecca's sister Mary (Amanda Peet) isn't much easier to deal with. And Kate and Alex are also struggling to communicate with Abby, who has her own issues regarding self-image.

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A clip from Please Give. Kate (Catherine Keener) tries to get Abby (Sarah Steele) to give the man some money.

The trailer for Please Give. Kate (Catherine Keener) has a lot on her mind. There s the ethics problem of buying furniture on the cheap at estate sales and marking it up at her trendy Manhattan store (and how much markup can she get away with?). There s the materialism problem of not wanting her teenage daughter (Sarah Steele) to want the expensive things that Kate wants. There s the marriage problem of sharing a partnership in parenting, business, and life with her husband Alex (Oliver Platt) but sensing doubt nibbling at the foundations. And there s Kate s free floating 21st century malaise the problem of how to live well and be a good person when poverty, homelessness, and sadness are always right outside the door. Plus, there s the neighbors: cranky, elderly Andra (Ann Guilbert) and the two granddaughters who look after her (Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet). As Kate, Alex, and Abby interact with the people next door, with each other, and with their New York surroundings, a complex mix of animosity, friendship, deception, guilt, and love plays out with both sharp humor and pathos. Please Give is writer/director Nicole Holofcener s perceptive and devastatingly funny take on modern life s contradictions, good intentions and shaky moral bearings.