La famille Savage

If you look for honesty portrayed in film, you can't do much better than The Savages. This is an example of the type of film that rarely sees the light of day, simply because it refuses to compromise. Despite it's grim subject matter, there is plenty of humor in this film, which mainly arises from the absurdity of situations that feel so genuinely familiar. All the performances across the board are fantastic, and Ms. Jenkins was miraculously able to get funding for a film that didn't include the casting of a single "pretty young thing". Every single person in the the film genuinely looks like the real article (note: for equally impressive casting, check out Sarah Polly's "Away From Her".) There are numerous places where this film could've taken a turn into typical Hollywood schmaltz and portrayed situations in a less-than-honest way, but it's director and actors refused to go there. Thank goodness they didn't.

"The Savages" has been terribly mismarketed. I'm sure plenty of people who went to watch it having seen only the previews, thought it was a comedy, and were disappointed. If anything, this is a "dramedy" - it will make you smile a few times, but never laugh out loud. But that's not a bad thing, the other way around.

This is a story about two siblings, Wendy (Laura Linney, who earned a surprise - and much deserved - Oscar nomination for this performance) and Jon Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who have to take care of their ailing, estranged father, Lenny (Philip Bosco). Fathers and kids relationships have been discussed in tons of movies, but Tamara Jenkins (real life wife of Jim Taylor, co-author of Alexander Payne's scripts - they both produced this movie, by the way) managed to create something fresh and beautiful in its own simplicity (and, at the same time, so complex and painfully real, for all of those who've had difficult family relationships - and who hasn't?). "The Savages" reminds me of Noah Baumbach's "The Squid and the Whale", also starring Laura Linney - but with a little less humor, and perhaps even more heart. Hoffman and Bosco are also great, as usual. Jenkins proves that she's a very sensitive writer/director, and I'm excited to check whatever she does next. I'm rooting for either her or Diablo Cody ("Juno") to win the Oscar for best original screenplay next month (coincidentally, both movies have The Velvet Underground's "I'm Sticking With You" in the soundtrack). 10/10.

Any film that features Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman is certainly worth seeing, and the acting in "The Savages" is excellent, not only by Linney and Hoffman but by Philip Bosco who plays their father, Lenny, an elderly man suffering from dementia. The story line - - two grown children facing the task of caring for a failing parent -- is all too familiar in real life, and anyone who's been through it knows how emotionally wrenching it can be. The complication here is that both children feel that they were mistreated by their father during childhood.

Jon, Hoffman's character, a drama professor is less devastated by the reality, though perhaps not by the memory. Wendy, Linney's character, is torn apart by both. There's another story line as well. Jon has just been separated from his long time girl friend, a Polish drama teacher whose visa has expired. Wendy, who's been trying to write a play about her childhood trauma and seeking a grant to permit her to do so, is having sex with an older married man (more at his convenience than hers).

But the story is mainly about their search for a nursing home that will have their father. (Wendy would prefer a beautiful space that offers "assisted living" which her father can no longer manage.) And after they've found the nursing home, they have to cope with their father's demented behavior and their own emotional states. After Lenny dies, the script seeks a hopeful but unconvincing resolution. The brief, uncertain up-tick at the end does not make this film any less of a downer. But the acting is superb. It's to be expected of Linney and Hoffman. Though it's not likely that many viewers will have noticed Bosco before, he's been an excellent stage actor and, in some ways, his may be the most impressive performance of the three.

This is a great movie, but pay no attention to the DVD packaging calling it "darkly funny", "singularly funny" and so on. While it does have a few good gags that made me laugh out loud once or twice, it's only about 25% comedy and the rest is a heavy, emotional drama about the painful subject of slow, lingering death.

Two siblings (played by Laura Linney & Philip Seymour Hoffman) are burdened with the task of taking care of their estranged father who they learn is suffering from dementia. The comedy is just enough to keep it from getting too depressing but not so much that it upstages the gravity of the situation.

The pacing is appropriately slow. You'll find no car chases, shootouts, contrived romances or M-Night-Shyamalanian twists; the story is not even very significant. Instead, pay attention to the relationships between the characters, their emotional disconnection from each other & the world, and their efforts to confront their lack of intimacy. What's interesting about this movie is that it begins with no details about the characters, but slowly the past emerges and is only fully explained in the final scene.

If you like movies about real life, I think you'll enjoy this. And if you're interested in films about families/people dealing with illnesses & disorders, also check out "Away From Her", "Autumn Hearts", and "Phoebe in Wonderland" ...all good movies without the standard Hollywood cheese.

To put it simply, "The Savages" is the most human look at life I've seen in theaters this year. It's incredibly easy to relate to if you have ever ever seen some relative or family friend of yours get old and then forget who you are due to some sort of elder person's disease. It features three of the year's finest performances from Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Phillip Brosco, all of whom radiate on the screen as real, ordinary but complex, people. Linney and Hoffman play brother and sister, two writers who have an argumentative but loving way of getting along. Brosco plays their father, who has done something really, well, "dirty," and has drawn the attention of the family that had been caring for him, who no longer wish to do so.

From there, Linney and Hoffman's characters meet up with the father whom they haven't seen in years, and who was never very compassionate towards them. However, their father has dementia, and slowly begins to forget who they are. Instead of their main concern being whether or not he's kind to them, the kids are afraid they won't be able to communicate with him at all. The way Tamara Jenkins handles this, from both the perspective of the kids and the perspective of the father, is brilliant. She really understands the way family relations work, as her film is spot-on in that aspect.

The three performances are all great for their own reasons. Linney plays a woman who is really confused with her life: she's having an affair with a married man who's ten years older than her, she lies to everyone she knows about things that aren't worth it, and she is having a lot of trouble getting produced as a writer. Hoffman, her older brother, has a really relaxed humanistic side to him, always countering Linney's loud worrisome actions with a calm, mind-processing technique. The chemistry between this brother-sister duo - probably the only opposite-sex-adult-aged-duo that doesn't have any romantic elements (for obvious reasons) - is one of the most realistic works of chemistry you'll find in a theater this year. Throw in Phillip Brosco - who absolutely conquers the dementia that his character has (my aunt has dementia, so I see her all the time and know that his face and way of talking and mannerisms are all spot on) - and you've got three characters who are so strong alone that they're enough reason to see this movie, funny-touching script and story aside.

While all three performances were incredible, I'd have to say that my favorite performance came from Hoffman. Linney played the confused-wreck card very well, but it's not like she's the first actress to confront or conquer that territory. Brosco was astoundingly realistic as a man with dementia, but his role doesn't carry very far beyond that. Hoffman's performance, while not "loud" in any way, is simply the best portrayal of an ordinary human being I've seen in years, if that makes any sense. Everything, from the way he reacts to what people say, to the way he talks, to the way he expresses emotion when he's feeling it - all of it is executed so well that I can't believe that he was actually acting.

The ending of the film is very humane. It doesn't have any major twists or bangs, but it doesn't end on a nothing-note either. It teaches us that the lessons we learn from one experience can help us deal with the next, and it's the many small messages like this and the very life-like feel of the film's craft that make it one of the most special films I had the experience of seeing at a theater this year.