Please Give
for language, some sexual content and nudity.
Reviewed by: Steve Warburton
CONTRIBUTOR
| Moral Rating: | 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 |
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—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
| Featuring | Rebecca Hall (Rebecca), Elizabeth Keener (Cathy), Elise Ivy (Marissa), Catherine Keener (Kate), Josh Pais (Adam), Sarah Steele (Abby), Ann Morgan Guilbert (Andra), Amanda Peet (Mary), Oliver Platt (Alex), See all » |
| Director |
Nicole Holofcener |
| Producer | Sony Pictures Classics, Likely Story, Feelin' Guilty, Stefanie Azpiazu, Anthony Bregman, Caroline Jaczko |
| Distributor |
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
Why is the world the way it is? If God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and loving, would He really create a world like this? (filled with oppression, suffering, death and cruelty) Answer
Discover God’s promise for all people—told beautifully and clearly from the beginning. Discover The HOPE! Watch it on Christian Answers—full-length motion picture.
See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.
none
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3