Pieces of April

In this Murphy's law Thanksgiving comedy, both the meal and the movie have a hard time coming together. Saddled with a handful of sitcom-like plot contrivances, Pieces of April's quirkiness never quite evolves into cleverness as it follows both pretty young punkette April (Katie Holmes) through a day of near-disasters, and her uneasy suburban family (headed by Oliver Platt and Patricia Clarkson) on their long, reluctant car trip to her graffiti-encrusted Lower East Side walk-up for what they're sure will be a calamity of a holiday meal with their black sheep. Writer-director Peter Hedges (author of What's Eating Gilbert Grape) has a good ear for the humorous dynamics of family dysfunction, capturing both the title character's short-fuse consternation over this rite of passage and her family's feelings of obligation that battle their acute aversion to pretty much anything April-related. Still, while the movie's heart is in the right place, too often Hedges over-directs (in one scene it's patently obvious that Holmes has been instructed exactly when to pause mid-sentence to sip a drink), and he pads the 81-minute film with strained satirical cuteness and clumsy embellishments that feel undercooked. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by writer-director Peter Hedges, the 15-minute “making of” featurette “All the Pieces Together,” and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a winsome--though burdened with affectations--film.] (R. Blackwelder)