Racing against time

As April raced against time to finish cooking the turkey, so did her ill mother, to create good memories with her daughter.

Pieces of April is a story about how April Burns (Katie Holmes) who was painstakingly preparing a Thanksgiving dinner for her family. She wasn’t in good terms with her mother, Joy (Patricia Clarkson), and she wanted to make amends. She wanted to show her family that she was doing fine on her own in NY. But disaster after disaster happened as she try to prepare a decent meal. The oven was broken, her boyfriend, Bobby (Derek Luke) left the house, and she struggled to find strangers in the apartment who would let her use their oven.

Meanwhile, her family was on the way over driving. Her sister Beth (Alison Pill) was waiting for her mother, who had breast cancer, to say that she “wasn’t up to it.” At first, Joy was determined to go even though she had been throwing up the entire trip. Then as she reminisced about her troubled relationship with April, she started to back out. Jim (Oliver Platt), her husband tried to persuade her to give April a second chance to prove that she can give her mother at least one pleasant memory. But when they saw April’s dilapidated place and Bobby’s bloody face, they turned back.

I was touched when April realized that her family left and she was crying on the bed. Instead of saying anything bad against her family (she had doubts that they’d ever come at all), she asked Bobby, “What are we going to do with all the food?” They invited the neighbours who helped her cook the turkey. So you see, behind her rebellious appearance, she really had a good heart.

April’s family was on their way back home when Joy saw in a restaurant washroom a young girl being cruelly treated by her mother. This was literally the turning point and they went back to April’s place. I burst down in tears when April opened the door and there stood her mother. They didn't have to say the words. They just looked into each other's eyes and you know what they wanted to say. They hugged and the family joined April’s guests.

I enjoyed watching Katie Holmes as the edgy April, such a contrast from her sweet character as Joey Potter on Dawson’s Creek. I think she’s a versatile actress and very beautiful, too. And did you know that this movie was shot in just 16 days?