Please Give

Synopsis: Kate (Catherine Keener) and her husband Alex (Oliver Platt) are wealthy New Yorkers who prowl estate sales and make a tidy profit reselling items they bought cheaply. They buy the apartment next door and plan to remodel just as soon as its current occupant, a cranky old woman, dies. Kate is troubled by the way she and her husband earn a living, and tries to assuage her guilt by befriending her tenant and the woman's granddaughters, but her overtures lead to unexpected consequences.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Production: Sony Pictures Classics
  5 wins & 17 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.6
Metacritic:
78
Rotten Tomatoes:
86%
R
Year:
2010
87 min
$4,033,268
Website
521 Views


1 INT. RADIOLOGY OFFICES - DAY 1

CLOSE UP ON A LARGE BREAST as it is maneuvered into a

mammogram machine. A PAIR OF HANDS lift it, pull it and

eventually squeeze into nothing more than a small tube of

flesh as it’s pressed down by a sandwich of glass.

ANGLE ON:

Various shots of more breasts, young and old, high and low,

as they get their mammograms.

2 INT. RADIOLOGY FRONT OFFICE - DAY 2

PATIENTS flip through magazines, RECEPTIONISTS answer phones

and make appointments.

3 INT. RADIOLOGY HALLWAY - DAY 3

WOMEN in paper robes, mostly over 50, sit in chairs that line

the hallway, waiting their turn.

4 INT. X-RAY ROOM - DAY 4

AN ANXIOUS WOMAN removes her robe to expose her small

breasts. The technician is REBECCA, 28 years old and plain

looking.

REBECCA:

Let’s do the left first.

Rebecca does her best to get the woman’s left breast onto the

plate of glass. The woman winces.

REBECCA:

I think I can get...a little more.

Rebecca closes the machine on her tit and moves to flip a

switch.

5 INT. RADIOLOGY FRONT OFFICE - DAY 5

MARISSA AND CATHY, receptionists, do some filing.

CATHY:

I think they’re at their peak this

week-end.

MARISSA:

I can’t go til the end of the

month.

CATHY:

That’s too bad. They might be over

by then.

MARISSA:

I know. And New York magazine gave

a list where they’re the best this

year.

Rebecca enters the front office.

MARISSA:

Rebecca, you gonna see the leaves?

Rebecca stares at her blankly.

MARISSA:

The leaves. Upstate? They change

color?

6 INT. PREWAR APARTMENT - DAY 6

KATE, 45 years old and attractive, is being lead through an

enormous, dark apartment by a middle aged man, ADAM. The

place is filled with furniture from the 50’s, along with a

life time of mementos and tchotchkes.

ADAM:

I apologize for the smell. We

cracked the windows but it didn’t

help.

KATE:

Oh, it’s fine.

ADAM:

My mother was always cold. Most of

the windows were actually painted

shut.

Untitled Nicole Holofcener Project 2008 - Yellow 5/19/08 2.

(MORE)

(pointing to the living

room set)

This stuff all matches. It’s the

original upholstery, I’m sure.

Pretty dreary.

Untitled Nicole Holofcener Project 2008 - Yellow 5/19/08 2A.

ADAM (cont'd)

Kate looks around, blase about what she’s seeing.

ADAM:

You don’t buy the little stuff,

right? Like jewelry and clothes?

KATE:

We just buy furniture. Sometimes

artwork, pottery.

ADAM:

It’s better to just get rid of it

all at once like this, right? I

mean, it’s a bunch of junk and I’m

a busy person.

KATE:

Oh, definitely. You don’t want to

have to worry about it.

ADAM:

(chuckling)

I’ll probably get rid of some

priceless thing and not know it,

right? Like this.

He holds up a vase that’s decorated with gold leaves.

KATE:

Oh, I don’t think you have to

concern yourself with that.

(beat)

This is a beautiful place, though.

You going to keep it?

ADAM:

Na. I like the suburbs.

KATE:

This kind of space in Manhattan is

unreal.

ADAM:

Yeah, if you like Manhattan.

7 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING ELEVATOR - DAY 7

Rebecca, (the mammographer) gets into the elevator with

groceries. After a moment, Kate gets in as well, and they

smile coldly to one another. The doors close and they ride

up.

Untitled Nicole Holofcener Project 2008 - Yellow 5/19/08 3.

KATE:

(after a while)

Weirdly hot today, huh?

REBECCA:

I work inside.

KATE:

(snapping)

You had to go outside to get to

work. And to leave work, right?

Rebecca shrugs.

KATE:

How’s your grandmother?

REBECCA:

(pointed)

Great. Doing really well.

They both get out on the same floor.

8 INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 8

Rebecca walks to the left to Apartment 6A. Kate walks to the

right, to Apartment 6B.

9 INT. APT. 6A/ANDRA’S APARTMENT - DAY 9

Rebecca unloads groceries in ANDRA’S prewar one bedroom

apartment. The kitchen is original, tiles are missing, plates

are washed badly. The room smells of urine and medicine.

ANDRA, 90 years old, is sitting at the small kitchen table.

Her face rests in its permanent frown as she holds her little

bull dog LUCKY -- their expressions sadly resembling one

another’s.

ANDRA:

I don’t know why you don’t go to

Associated.

REBECCA:

You do know.

ANDRA:

If it was your money you’d walk the

extra six blocks.

REBECCA:

It’s ten blocks. And no I wouldn’t.

Untitled Nicole Holofcener Project 2008 - Yellow 5/19/08 4.

ANDRA:

When my feet get better I’ll do it

myself.

10 INT. APT. 6B/KATE AND ALEX’S APARTMENT - DAY 10

A two bedroom apartment, bright and cluttered but stylishly

decorated.

Kate is cooking dinner while her DAUGHTER ABBY, 15, does

homework at the table. Abby is in an awkward stage of

development and has a bad case of acne.

KATE:

Why does she hate us so much? What

did we do to her?

ABBY:

She sees you, she sees death.

You’re a vulture.

KATE:

Us buying that apartment has no

down side. Her grandmother’s still

living there, we’re not hovering.

The only difference to her is that

now she pays her rent to us instead

of the sponsor. And we didn’t even

raise it.

ABBY:

You’re a saint.

KATE:

(beat)

Maybe she’s mean because she has a

prettier sister.

ABBY:

Mom.

KATE:

I’ve seen the older one. She’s kind

of gorgeous in a low rent way.

ABBY:

The younger one is okay looking.

Maybe she likes how she looks.

KATE:

I doubt it. It’s hard to have a

prettier sister.

Untitled Nicole Holofcener Project 2008 - Yellow 5/19/08 5.

KATE:

It’s just so sad.

ABBY:

What?

KATE:

The old lady. Andra. I mean, does

she ever go outside?

ABBY:

What’s so fun outside?

KATE:

The world? Life?

ABBY:

Maybe she’s perfectly happy.

KATE:

That’s how you rationalize so you

don’t have to feel bad for her.

ABBY:

Why do I have to feel bad for her?

KATE:

She’s a lonely old woman at the end

of her life.

ABBY:

That’s not my fault.

ALEX, Kate’s husband, comes into the room sifting through

photos. He’s 42 and attractive despite a pot belly and

unkempt hair.

ALEX:

This table is incredibly rare.

KATE:

He had no idea.

ALEX:

What about this chest of drawers?

Is it signed?

Untitled Nicole Holofcener Project 2008 - Yellow 5/19/08 6.

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Nicole Holofcener

Nicole Holofcener is an American film and television director and screenwriter. She has directed five feature films, including Friends with Money and Enough Said as well as various television series. more…

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Submitted by aviv on November 10, 2016

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