The Savages (2007)

  

The Savages

a review by Jeffrey Overstreet
also published in Risen Magazine

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Wendy and Jon are not what you’d call “kindred spirits.” She’s an aspiring writer stuck in a cubicle farm in New York. He’s a theater professor in Buffalo writing books about Brecht. They don’t talk to each other, and they have little respect for each others’ lifestyles.

But Wendy and Jon Savage are brother and sister. And The Savages is about the painful crisis that brings them together. When Wendy and Jon’s aging father Lenny begins behaving irrationally, they know what they have to do. But their dad is a cranky fellow, and it’s not going to be easy.

Not the most promising opportunity for comedy, is it?

Writer-director Tamara Jenkins covers tough emotional territory here. But her ability to find laughs in the midst of this mess, and to draw us into carrying deeply about these temperamental characters, is remarkable.

Wendy wants to move her father into an expensive resort-style retirement center, but Jon understands that Lenny needs more serious attention. So they move Lenny into an assisted living facility. Many directors would have exploited the staff and residents of these centers for the sake of laughs, but Jenkins’ depiction of these workers shows deep respect and compassion.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney have wonderful chemistry as Wendy and Jon. It may not be Hoffman’s most challenging performance, but it’s one of his most endearing. Linney is better than ever. And Philip Bosco delivers a bold, honest turn as their father. The Savages is about a subject most people don’t want to talk about, but it’s smart, funny, eloquent, and a must-see.

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Writer-director – Tamara Jenkins
Director of photography – Mott Hupfel
Editor – Brian A. Kates
Music – Stephen Trask
Production designer – Jane Ann Stewart
Producers – Ted Hope, Anne Carey and Erica Westheimer

Fox Searchlight Pictures. 1 hour 53 minutes. Rated R for harsh language, sexual situations.

STARRING: Laura Linney (Wendy Savage), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Jon Savage), Philip Bosco (Lenny Savage), Peter Friedman (Larry), David Zayas (Eduardo), Gbenga Akinnagbe (Jimmy), Cara Seymour (Kasia), Guy Boyd (Bill Lachman), Debra Monk (Nancy Lachman), Kristine Nielsen (Nurse), Margo Martindale (Roz), Zoe Kazan (Student) and Marianne Weems (Director).