  
Please GiveMPAA Rating:
 for language, some sexual content and nudity.Reviewed by: Steve Warburton Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience:
Adults
Genre:
Drama Comedy
Length:
1 hr. 30 min.
Year of Release:
2010
USA Release:
January 22, 2010 (festival)
April 30, 2010 DVD: October 19, 2010 
 
Relevant Issues
Sexual sin
Adultery in the Bible Should I save sex for marriage? Answer How can I deal with temptations? Answer What are the consequences of sexual immorality? Answer
Poverty and charity
POVERTY—What does the Bible say about the poor? Answer Poor in the Bible / Charity / Mercy / Goodness / Goodness of God Why does God allow innocent people to suffer? Answer What about the issue of suffering? Doesn’t this prove that there is no God and that we are on our own? Answer Does God feel our pain? Answer ORIGIN OF BAD—How did bad things come about? Answer
Bear with me. It’s been a while since I saw “Please Give.” I probably shouldn’t be writing this review. Bad me!!! Tell ya what: I’ll just start off by telling you the most offensive thing about “Please Give.” A married man has an affair. He never tells his wife about it, either. I hope that wasn’t a spoiler. I actually cringed when the guy was initiating the affair. Why? Because I liked him. I liked him and his wife. They are decent people who are forced to be macabre in their professional and personal lives. They work as antique dealers. They get their stuff by buying up the estates of the recently deceased. Then they mark the items up and sell them at their store. How would you like a career like that? “Dear God, please make lots of people die today so that I can eat.” Good grief. The couple, along with their teenaged daughter, live in an apartment. Next door is a selfish old lady who won’t leave. The antique-dealing couple is actually hoping the lady will die soon, so they can buy her apartment and make a larger living space. There’s another ethical quagmire to live through: Needing someone to die so you can progress in life. I’m a Christian, and that means that I see things in black and white. Abortion: Murder. Gay marriage: Abomination. So I kinda like it when a movie can make me see things in shades of gray. In this case, I don’t know if the couple is being selfish or not. I mean, I hate the guy for cheating on his wife, but the wife is a lovable sort. She’s the kind of woman who hands $20 bills to homeless people on the street. POVERTY—What does the Bible say about the poor? Answer Her daughter even tells an embarrassing story about what happened when she allowed a homeless woman to come into her apartment to take a shower. I probably can’t share that story here because this is, after all, a Christian movie review site. I’ll just say that “Please Give” has some profanity, but, at least, it’s not forced. It’s real. The movie is real, in fact. It shows people trying to make sense of the ethical dilemmas that greet us all in everyday life. For this Christian moviegoer, one thought keeps popping up in my mind whenever I go to the cinema. It is this: “I wonder what choices these characters would make if they worshiped Jesus.” Violence: None / Profanity: Moderate / Sex/Nudity: Moderate
See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.   Positive
none Negative
Negative—The reviewer is correct in that this movie is real and that it shows people trying to make sense of the ethical dilemmas of everyday life. This movie does not have the typical story line, but, instead, just shows the lives of different New York city residents over a several month period. Because none of these characters appear to be Christians, the movie can at some times seem depressing and feel somewhat hopeless. If you are looking for a realistic snapshot of life today in NYC, you may enjoy this film, but, for me, it was not worth spending the money. The reason for the “R” rating is that there is nudity at the beginning (one character is a breast exam technician), there are three adultery-sex scenes (with no nudity), the “F” word is used regularly, as is the Lord’s name in vain.
Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3 —Craig, age 43 (USA) |
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