ongoing

You like heroes and villains, good guys and bad guys? Hollywood sure thinks you do given the surfeit of comic book-based movies unleashed upon us every year (especially every summer). "Please Give," starring married couple Oliver Platt (Alex) and Catherine Keener (Kate), is none of that. It's a small-scale New York movie, where the main plot, as it were, involves Alex and Kate's waiting for a tart 91-year-old neighbor Andra (Ann Gilbert) to die so they may take over her apartment. (Not sure how that deal was arranged exactly; the movie's murky on that point.) But Alex and Kate want to get to know the old woman - they don't want to appear mercenary - and in doing so they're exposed to her personality (not so sweet, brutally honest) and her grand-daughters Rebecca (played by Rebecca Hall) and Mary (Amanda Peet). Rebecca's the slightly frumpy good g-d, working as a lab tech in a breast cancer facility and Mary's the prettier, harder-edged g-d who gives facials for a living and really doesn't care much about grandma - noting how bitter and mean she's always been all her life. Add to this mix: Alex and Kate's teenaged daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele) beset by weight and acne problems, desirous of her parents love (and maybe a nice pair of pricey jeans).
But director Nicole Holofcener's movie is not about plot as much as it is character - and character flaws. Everyone has an agenda, spoken or unspoken, and everyone is conflicted by the path he or she chooses. Kate and Alex run a business where they buy estates from the children of dead parents and then re-sell to the public. Fair enough, but Kate worries about gouging customers - and even returns a vase she finds out is valuable to someone who sold it to her unknowingly. She also tries to give money to homeless men - much to her daughter's chagrin - and volunteer at either a nursing home or a sports center for mentally challenged kids. Both scenes are heart-breaking. She can't stand the pain and enforced "joy" at the old folks home - believe me, I've been in this situation and it's true - and she can't bear to watch the struggling kids play basketball. Alex, for his part, is untroubled by what he and his wife do, but he's a trifle bored by being his wife's partner in everything which leads him into the arms of Mary, his first affair. (You see Platt in a movie and you just know he's going to do something bad.)
But one of the things that makes "Please Give" so fascinating on its low-key level is that none of these potential mines blow up exactly. Alex's misdeed is not punished int he way moviegoers might expect. Not everything has to be resolved or come to an earth-shattering climax. Stuff happens; some of it painful; we move on.
The interaction of the characters in "Please Give" is what we're focused on. All have varying degrees of likabilty and dislikability. Even the crusty old grandma who dies - this is not a big spoiler, really - is revealed to have done some wonderful deeds when younger. She's gotten crabbier as she's aged because, well, the few friends she had are gone, her aimlments are not getting better, and life has little joy left. This struck me as, well, not unrealistic. The "golden years" aren't for many. The idea that decline, decay and death are faced with resolutely good cheer is, I think, facile.
You leave this and think about the various crises, large and small, these people are dealing with. For years, when people talked about having a "mid-life crisis," I'd laugh and say, "How about a constant life-crisis?" Not that it's all that, ever, but when does crisis truly go away on a personal level or on the larger playing field? Recognizing that you have deal, are dealing, or will deal with a crisis doesn't negate the joy you find. I think that's something most of these people find.
At the Coolidge Corner Theater. Check website for show times, but generally speaking it's at 5:10, 7:30 and 9:50. Tickets: $9.75.

290 Harvard St., Brookline, 617-734-2500 www.coolidge.org