Real-life holidays are not like the peaceful scenes portrayed in Norman Rockwell paintings. If “Pieces of April” is any indication, they are some of the most eventful times of our lives.

The film, which features the directorial debut of writer Peter Hedges, paints a picture of a family that fell apart years ago and then tries come together in the worst of times. A Des Moines native, Hedges is best known for his screenplay, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.”

In most films, honest tears are hard to come by. In “Pieces of April,” the filmmakers and actors know the score and stay away from false sentimentality. Patricia Clarkson’s performance is a perfect example. As a suburban mother traveling to New York City for what will probably be her last reunion with her wild-child daughter April (Katie Holmes), Clarkson delivers her lines with the cynicism and grace of a mother with more than her fair share of experience. Her portrayal of Joy gives us tears and laughs with equal ease.

Tears in “Pieces of April” come through as real emotions. The laughs are honest, too. It’s also set in a very real world with characters who act like real people.

April’s life centers around a dumpy apartment in New York City’s East Village. She is going out of her mind trying to prepare a Thanksgiving feast for her visiting family, a difficult task for a woman who usually lives in a world of drug deals and frozen pizza.

Derek Luke (“Antwone Fisher”) plays her boyfriend, Bobby, who complicates things even further. Bobby is shown attempting to avoid street hassles while trying to find something to wear to impress April’s family.

April’s broken stove forces her to wander from one apartment to another in search of a place to cook. She finds one couple (Lillias White and Isiah Whitlock Jr.) who can offer half the cooking time for the turkey, and an uptight but extremely horny yuppie played by Sean Hayes (“Will and Grace”) who has a different kind of payment in mind in exchange for the use of his oven.

Meanwhile, Joy, rumpled dad Jim (Oliver Platt), bitchy sister Beth (Alison Pill), spacey little brother Timmy (John Gallagher Jr.) and grandma Dottie (Alice Drummond) are on their way down from upstate New York, bickering all the way.

The comical side of “Pieces of April,” is the interactions between April and her neighbors as well as the Burns family on their short road trip. But that’s not the whole movie. There is a very sincere, dramatic side to it as well.

This is best exemplified by April’s final-hour attempts to repair her damaged relationship with her mother. Jim’s idea is to leave his wife with a happy memory after a lifetime of disappointments by having a semi-happy family gathering.

The drama works for the most part and you can tell the actors enjoy their roles. Holmes and Platt are good as April and Jim, but again, it is Clarkson who makes the movie. She knows just when to shift gears from laughter to tears.

The actors are only as good as the lines they are given, and you can definitely tell Hedges is a writer.

He paints his own picture of a what a family really looks like during the holidays. He does it in such a way that he manages to show there can be joy even in tears.