A Thanksgiving movie that's no turkey

Last week, CineVerse enjoyed a movie with all the trimmings: Pieces of April. Here are the talking points of our group discussion:

WHAT ARE SOME IMPORTANT THEMES THIS PICTURE IS TRYING TO PUSH?

·       The universality of Thanksgiving as a racial and cultural American experience: All Americans were immigrants at one time or another

·       The story of the prodigal son, in reverse

·       Reconciliation

·       Coming to grips with death and mortality

DO YOU FEEL, AS ROGER EBERT HAS EXPRESSED, THAT THE MOVIE ENDS TOO ABRUPTLY, AS IF THEY RAN OUT OF MONEY? IF SO, WHAT IS THE PROOF?

·       The closing montage sequence employs photographs, as if they didn’t have time or resources to shoot any final footage

·       The runtime of the movie is only 81 minutes, very short for a feature live action film

·       Themovie was shot on digital (not film) for about $200,000 over 3 weeks, which is a real shoestring budget these days

OTHER FILMS BY PETER HEDGES

·       The Odd Life of Timothy Green

·       Dan in Real Life

·       What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (screenwriter)

·       About a Boy (screenwriter)