MOM-DAUGHTER CONFLICT MAIN COURSE IN 'APRIL'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

STOP ME IF you've heard this one before. Kooky, black-sheep daughter tries to make Thanksgiving dinner for long-estranged family. Reluctant guests include desperate-to-keep-the-peace Dad, terminally ill Mom, senile Grandma and two snippy younger siblings. Then, wouldn't you know it, just as the turkey's stuffed, the oven breaks, leaving hostess at the mercy of neighbors with their own various neuroses and holiday commitments.

Yes, ``Pieces of April'' is every dysfunctional family/Thanksgiving gathering disaster comedy ever made. But this modest independent effort, which is the self-written directing debut of ``What's Eating Gilbert Grape'' novelist Peter Hedges, boasts just enough distinctive touches to justify its existence.

Some of these are funny, some are behavioral and others make a nice, open-armed statement about the inclusiveness the holiday is supposed to represent. Of course, many if not more moments that fall into each of the above categories are pat, sitcom-y or soap opera-ish. What basically keeps the movie cooking are its two main performances, a deftly busy if otherwise unspectacular one by ``Dawson's Creek's'' Katie Holmes and a cranky one from indie stalwart Patricia Clarkson (``The Station Agent'') that occasionally achieves a state of tragic grandeur.

Holmes is the title's April Burns, a free spirit (read: history of trouble landing a job and a decent boyfriend, not to mention staying sober) with maroon streaks in her hair and black-polished fingernails. She lives in a cramped, Lower Manhattan apartment with her latest guy, an uncharacteristically nice one named Bobby (``Antwone Fisher's'' Derek Luke).

Of all the folks upstate, April's most rancorous relationship has been with her mom, Joy (Clarkson). But now that Joy's mastectomy has failed to stop the spread, April wants some kind of reconciliation before it's too late. Hence her volunteering to cook the feast, a task she has little skill or experience at.

And don't her relatives know it. As father Jim (Oliver Platt) drives his brood through long stretches of autumnally denuded trees to the city, it's hard to say what his more realistically thinking passengers dread most: April's sure-to-be-awful cooking or the inevitable blow-up between her and Joy.

While Bobby's away on a mysterious mission, April must find a way to heat the bird. Some neighbors she hardly knows help, but due to their own meals or language barriers, they can't help enough. Others do more harm then good; prissy Wayne, played at not much of a stretch by ``Will & Grace's'' Sean Hayes, allows her turkey into his new, state-of-the-art oven, then gets into a snit and holds it hostage.

Hedges intercuts between the Burnses' journey, April's culinary misadventures and whatever it is Bobby's up to. This prevents any particular joke from going on too long (which is a blessing) and the dying woman's angst from getting too bathetic or off-puttingly angry. That, too, is generally a good idea, but a bit frustrating when Clarkson gets on one of Joy's magisterial tears about how health and April have disappointed her. You want it to go further, hear more, because so rarely does parental anger get such honest expression in American cinema.

Plus, these are the only moments with any real bite in ``Pieces of April.'' Otherwise, it's a movie that's a little too determined to find sweet forgiveness in sour attitudes.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

PIECES OF APRIL - Two and one half stars

(PG-13: sex, drug use, language, nudity, mild violence)

Starring: Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Oliver Platt, Derek Luke, Alison Pill, John Gallagher Jr., Sean Hayes.

Director: Peter Hedges.

Running time: 1 hr. 20 min.

Playing: ArcLight, Hollywood; Century 14, Century City; The Grove, Farmers Market; NuWilshire, Santa Monica.

In a nutshell: One of those everything-that-can-go-wrong Thanksgiving family dramedies. Stuffed with eccentrics but also nourished by a credible mother-daughter conflict.