i am so critical...

I’m glad that the likes of Roger Ebert agrees with me about Bobby’s plotline in Pieces of April; he writes: “...here Hedges, the writer-director, half-heartedly tries to do something that doesn’t work and is a little offensive.” Yep. Totally.

On the other hand, I must disagree withe Nick Rogers‘ when he terms the titular April a “Pierced pixie-girl.” Pixie-girls, in cinematic terms are not simply a little eccentric—and April is really only visibly eccentric while she’s a little boring in personality—but cheerful and energetic as well... well, maybe there’s room for something other than the manic pixie, but I do not think April is quite interesting enough to be it. Her plight may be interesting, but she really isn’t.

Similarly, while I can appreciate the quiet subtlety of this film, I must disagree with Rogers when he says, “Thankfully, Hedges stages no knockdown, drag-out dinner-table histrionics.” A little more histrionics may have put more life into this film. I mean, yeah, as Peter Rainer points out, “Hedges doesn’t judge [his characters] too harshly [so] no one descends into caricature,” and that is great. But, other than a single scene—Joy kicking the dashboard then exiting the car because she has no good memories of April—this movie lacks emotion of any kind in any significant amount. April cries and it barely registers.

Rainer says Holmes looks “pleased” to be playing a character “who, for a change, [has] more than one tiny thing” on her mind. Unlike her role on Dawson’s Creek is Rainer’s point, but I get the feeling from this line that he has seen neither Dawson’s Creek nor Pieces of April, the latter of which would be weird for a guy reviewing the film.

Even worse, I just can’t think of more to say in regards to this film today. Nor can I find the right tangent to start rambling about some other topic. Hell, I can’t even be more critical of this film than I have already been. Despite all the negative stuff I’ve said this week, I still like Pieces of April.