David
A believable, albeit tongue in cheek look at how a busy and somewhat estranged brother and sister have to come together to interface with the cold hard reality of their father's sudden decline. Some exquisite little bits of absurdity tucked in its pockets, which anyone who has been through such an experience will appreciate the hell out of. When you're in such a situation, everything is turned upside down and inside out. It's like emotional rape, and finding the humour in it is sweet relief indeed. The film plays with how this kind of situation plays out in the real world, with people tied up in jobs and in different places. The conflict of necessary pragmatism VS sentimentality. What care and compassion the person needs offset against how good a parent they were. The cold perfunctory chain of profiteers waiting to take their cut every step of the way. A shockingly dehumanising and disrespectful process that criminalises children and humiliates parents. It's wrong on so many levels and when you come to have to deal with it you can't help but be disturbed by it. It's the great shame of the western world, how we treat our elderly in deference to capitalist demands. So I think it's good that people are making films about this subject. It's the best thing I've seen Laura Linney in. Her character is such a delicious bag of clumsy contrasts. Sometimes strong and independent, other times regressing(as Hoffman's character puts it at one point) into the little sister/daughter. But always lovable and hilarious. Some of the gestures and looks from her and Hoffman throughout this are priceless. Superbly acted and directed and written. I wish these people made all my movies. Well these kind of movies anyway. I know it's an over-used phrase but I firmly believe this is an under- rated little gem.
sheyenne
Jon and Wendy Savage are brother and sister children of no good parents. Their mother left them young and is "out of the picture". Their father brutal and abusive. Nonetheless, the siblings grew up as normal as middle-class Americans with middle-age types of woes. Time came when they have to take care of their aging dad. Despite how they were treated before, Wendy is compelled with providing her dad the with utmost care. Jon, on the other hand, is the level-headed, has a matter-of-fact way of dealing with life. I love how the melodrama is stripped out of it. Seeing him teary-eyed as he watches the rehearsal of the play that his sister had written about the pain they experienced, was very heartfelt. But they triumphed over the hurt and that's admirable.
lasttimeisaw
Tamara Jenkins' breakthrough indie drama-comedy THE SAVAGES, surprisingly captured 2 Oscar nominations back in 2008 , one for the unmistakably excellent Laura Linney and a BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY nomination for herself, so freshly coined as an Oscar nominee and subsequently granted the membership of the academy , allegedly her next project should be on the horizon at any time, nevertheless, as a telling manifest of the shameful situation of female directors in the movie industry, 8 years has passed, we still have no news of Tamara's follow-up to her excellent work, a life-affirming dissection of the worst-case scenario for (almost) every grown-up - how to fulfil our responsibility, when we must become the caretaker of our aging parents during their last days. Linney and the late Hoffman are siblings Wendy and Jon Savage, she is an amateur playwright and he is a college professor, so both are intellectuals and unmarried, reaching 40, Wendy is still stuck in a dead-end extramarital affair with Larry (Friedman), a 52-year-old married man, who is jollily content with the status quo. Jon, her elder brother 3 years senior, on the other hand, is ending a three-year relationship with her Polish lover Kasia (Seymour), whose visa is about to expire and he has no intention to marry her. If one is solely reading those background information on paper, both Wendy and Jon are not personable characters. Besides, they are not so close to their father Lenny (Bosco, in his fine but irritating persona as a curmudgeon), who is not protected by Common Law Marriage after his long-time girlfriend died and himself is afflicted with dementia and an ailing health, so now it is now the siblings to take care of their deteriorating father. Neither or them can afford to attend to Lenny by themselves, thus some grating words like assisted living, nursing home or rehabilitation centre are dropping by as default, but Lenny is not exactly a mellow old geezer, the film opens with his stomach-churning fecal revenge as one might expect in a slasher horror, the parent-child rapport is never the aim to be soppily achieved by Jenkins' sincerely matter-of-fact script. More importantly, under the dysfunctional family troupe, the storyline steadily builds a re-connection between the two siblings, from the unspoken competition for grants, the guilt-shifting mind-game, to a tacit feeling when Lenny eventually drops dead peacefully, this is what is happening everyday to ordinary people, no "how could this happen to me!" overcompensating drama or "I can't believe it!" emotional wreck, Jenkins is act of genius in singling out the golden touches out of a real-life scenario, and the unexpectedly rosy ending brings about so much hope using just a little gesture, one single scene, to cogently affirm her talent in theatrics. It is no wonder that both Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney represent the elite of their peers in Hollywood, together, they are so harmonious with each other's presence while their differences in personality are potently exhibited through their interactions: he is pedantic, aloof but sensible, she is more emotional, ambivalent in her life orbit, and a tad naive, both tainted with some snobbishness from their sophisticated literature background. Their dialogues are spontaneous but scintillating with bons mots and when there are no words needed, the coordination between them can be equally enjoyable to behold. As my said statement, they are not quite likable at first glance, but our judgement will evolve with the story development, when we cruise into the coda, we can all more or less identify ourselves in them, these are two sterling performance equipped with blood and flesh, but as always, LEADING ACTOR race is so packed in 2007, only Linney pounces into my Top 10 LEADING ACTRESS chart, also it is a cruel reminder for me, another superb Hoffman's performance has been crossed out from my watch-list. Finally, I must hail unyieldingly for this under-appreciated indie fare, it enlightens us enormously in how to be a good person, a good son/daughter, and how to correctly face our filial responsibility without being overwhelmed by our own senses of guilt and fear, also hope soon there will be some scoop of Tamara Jenkins' next project, an eight-year gap has already been criminally too long.
Claudio Carvalho
In Sun City, Arizona, the grumpy Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco) has dementia and lives with his mate Doris Metzger (Rosemary Murphy). His son Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a professor of drama in Buffalo that is writing a book about Bertold Brecht. His daughter Wendy (Laura Linney) is a thirty-nine year-old freelancer and aspirant writer of screenplays for theater that lives in New York and has an affair with the middle-aged married man Larry (Peter Friedman). Wendy and Jon are estranged from their abusive father but when Doris dies, the siblings travel to the funeral and are surprised by her family that informs that Lenny must leave the house. Wendy and Jon bring Lenny to Buffalo and leave him in a nursing home. Along the days, they visit their father and try to improve his life."The Savages" is a pointless, unpleasant and bitter drama of dementia, family responsibilities and end of life. The performance of the charming Laura Linney and the outstanding Philip Seymour Hoffman are top-notch but the subject of this film is not attractive and Philip Bosco performs a non-charismatic character and when he dies in the end, the viewer feels absolute indifference. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "A Família Savage" ("The Savage Family")
