The Savages
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.79 You Save: $10.19 (68%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Savages
Movie Review: Where Does Theatre End And Real Life Begin?
Summary: 5 Stars
"It's the pleasure of a true-to-life tale told by a director and actors who've sunk so deep into their movie together you wonder how they ever surfaced. You live with Jon and Wendy Savage gratefully, even when they can't always do the same." Manohla Dargis
"They mess you up, your mum and dad," Philip Larkin wrote, says Peter Travers. The two Savages, Wendy and Jon are as screwed up as they come, but they are likable, wonderfully human people. Wendy lives in NYC and is a temp while trying to write plays, and John is a professor of Brecht in Buffalo- and yes, they do shuffle off to Buffalo. Wendy has a married lover and Jon a Polish girlfriend, but he is not able to commit, and her visa expires and she leaves. Their father, with whom they have been estranged most of their life has dementia and needs care. Here they come to the rescue- they travel to Arizona to bring him back to Buffalo and a nursing home. All the trials and tribulations of caring for a father, with whom you have little in common, who probably physically abused you, and who can still get to you in those little ways.
The film of the days in the life of a man who is dying. Lenny, played by Philip Bosco is a stage actor who has completed 40 films, a true actor. Wendy as played by Laura Linney is as always a study in the definition of pure acting, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, as Jon, who is a giant in our acting industry more than bring this film together.
This is a movie of appreciation for the nature that goes into making us who we are. Because as brother and sister Jon and Wendy are able to bring it all home. Not enough superlatives can be stated about the acting and the three actors who make this film. This is also a film of humour, of the everyday issues and problems that raise their head and the circumstances that make us laugh. There are no answers in this film. How do you find a nursing home for your demented father? How do you make that room one you want to live in? How do you provide love when there wasn't any at the beginning? Tamara Jenkins, the writer and director has provided a story that none of us want to live, but one we all need to see.
"Jenkins and her three astonishing actors create comic devastation out of situations as serious as a mental meltdown and picking out just the right nursing home. There is nothing cozy about The Savages. Bosco, a theater legend, seizes his juiciest film role and makes every shocking moment count. And Linney is an amazement, showing vulnerability and strength at war for a character's soul. As for Hoffman, is this his year, or what?" Peter Travers
This film is one that is so poignant, and we can all see some vestiges of our families in this tale. There have been few films that show us what real life is like when someone in our family has dementia. This film portrays that reality with humour and finally with understanding.
Highly Recommended. prisrob 04-26-08
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
You Can Count on Me
Movie Review: Capturing the Drama of Our Everyday Simple Existence
Summary: 5 Stars
How we all come to grips with our mortality is often previewed in how we manage the care of our elders. When that elder care is focused on a parent, as it is in Tamara Jenkins's brilliant film THE SAVAGES, it not only strikes chords with individual philosophies, but is also reveals the intricacies of family relationships that come into play in coping with the final days of a parent's life. Though there is little story to this film, this is a character study about isolation, loneliness, and need that will touch the hearts of sensitive viewers.
Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) is a frustrated unpublished playwright working as a temp, a bright woman whose insecurities limit her emotional activity to an affair with a 'safe' married man Larry (Peter Friedman). Jon Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman), her older brother, is a professor of philosophy who is writing a book on the theater of the absurd of Bertolt Brecht while living in Buffalo with a Polish woman, Kasia (Cara Seymour), who, because Jon does not wish to commit to marriage, is forcing his only emotional tie to return to Poland when her Visa expires. Wendy and Jon were deserted by their mother at an early age, left in the care of their abusive father Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco), and both siblings have distanced themselves from their father now living in Sun City, Arizona with his girlfriend of twenty years. Lenny's girlfriend dies and the signs of Lenny's rapidly encroaching dementia force Wendy and Jon to fly to Arizona to 'make arrangements' for their demented father. Coming together under duress the two siblings are forced to confront their own frustrations together with the realities of placing Lenny in a nursing home. Lenny is moved from Arizona to Buffalo, NY and the manner in which Jon and Wendy cope with the new 'family' arrangement raises problems of guilt, memories of their childhood, resentment, and ultimately the manner in which they continue with their lives.
The film could have easily become a diatribe against current nursing home conditions, but instead Jenkins through her superb script and direction levels the playing field, allowing the family frustrations to play out in equal time with the vantage point of the caregivers (well played by David Zayas, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Margo Martindale, Tonye Patano, Nancy Lenehan, Tijuana Ricks, and others). But the real power of this film comes from the bravura performances by Linney, Hoffman, and Bosco. These three actors can do more with silences and facial and body expressions that just about anyone on the screens today. Watching these gifted actors at their trade makes for a stunning film experience and one that shakes us all a bit to think about things we don't wish to consider - death, care of the elderly, and finding life in a world that usually runs a bit on the crazy side. Another quality aspect of this film is the quiet, mood enhancing musical score by Stephen Trask, who manages to combine childlike songs with simple line piano music to underscore the intimate moods of the story. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, April 08
Movie Review: "We're taking better care of the old man than he ever did of us."
Summary: 5 Stars
Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman shine is the seriocomic film, "The Savages," written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. Linney is Wendy Savage, a thirty-nine year old office temp and aspiring playwright. Hoffman plays forty-two year old Jon Savage, a theater professor in Buffalo who specializes in the works of Berthold Brecht. Neither Jon nor Wendy is particularly successful, although Jon does have a steady job and is working on a book. Both have managed to make a mess of their personal lives. Jon has a Polish girlfriend who is about to return to her country; he loves her but cannot make a permanent commitment. Wendy settles for quick and humiliating liaisons with a married man, instead of seeking a long-term relationship with someone who is free to give her the love that she craves.
The siblings have never been particularly close, but they are reluctantly thrown together when their elderly father, Leonard Savage, is ejected from the Sun City, Arizona retirement home where he sponged off his girlfriend for years. Leonard is becoming forgetful and agitated, and the two younger Savages must decide what to do for a father who abused and neglected them. Jon dutifully arranges for Leonard to be placed in a decent enough facility in Buffalo, but Wendy is so upset by her father's decline that she unfairly lashes out at her brother. As the weeks pass, the two try to put their rancor aside and begin to empathize with one another. They also start to realize that there is a statute of limitations on blaming your parents for everything that is wrong with your life.
Tamara Jenkins nicely balances humor and poignancy in a film that is moving but never schmaltzy. The veteran actors include Philip Bosco, as the angry and confused Leonard Savage, a man who furiously rails against the dying of the light. Although he barely knows his children, he knows that he doesn't much care for them. Hoffman embodies the scruffy intellectual who is more expert in German theater than he is in interpersonal relationships. Linney delivers a beautifully nuanced performance as an insecure woman who is so out of touch with her feelings that, at times, she can barely think straight; her tirades try the patience of her long-suffering brother as well as of the nursing home staff. The fine supporting cast includes Peter Friedman as Wendy's irritating lover and Gbenga Akinnagbe, a compassionate orderly who does what he can to boost Wendy's self-confidence. The sole false note comes at the end, which is a bit too neat considering what has gone before. However, "The Savages" is worth seeing for its understated satirical humor, outstanding performances, and unflinching depiction of the horrors of old age.
Movie Review: A Pitch Perfect Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Tamara Jenkins, the director of "The Savages" gets everything right in this movie: from the starkness of the nursing home--whatever euphemism you may use to describe it, as Jon Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman) reminds his sister Wendy (Laura Linney) it's a place where people die and awful things happen-- to the cluttered lives of the Savage family. Jon and Wendy, estranged from their father and living far away from him (he has been living in Arizona with a common-law wife; Jon lives in Buffalo, Wendy in New York City) get the message that their father (Philip Bosco) has become demented and is writing with his own feces on the walls of the house where he is living. The film is all about how these two children, not particularly close to each other and certainly not to their father, have to make difficult decisions about how to care for him in his illness and impending death. (There is a humorous but at the same time devastating scene in a restaurant when Jon and Wendy approach the subject with their father about how he feels about life support if he is in a coma and after that then what, to which he screams, "pull the plug" and "bury me."
This movie is pitch perfect as those of us who have spent time in nursing homes visiting dying relatives can attest. You recognize the sometimes forced cheerfulness of the staff but also the wisdom of some of them, the drab surroundings, the Christmas decorations, etc. The film is essentially carried by the three principal actors who give fine performances. Ms. Linney was nominated for an Oscar for her performance. Mr. Hoffman should have been (although he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Charlie Wilson's War") as he is one of our very best actors as is evidenced here in this film which has such a "lived in" feel to it. Both Jon and Wendy, in caring for their father, come to grips with the messiness of their own lives and make some corrections, however small, in the direction they are going.
This movie will wring you out. I left the theatre ready to watch Ginger Rogers on the big screen do some fancy steps if she does have to dance backwards.
Movie Review: A poignant film
Summary: 5 Stars
We acquired The Savages because of the caliber of actors, thinking all along that it was a comedy. As soon as the movie started, we realized we were in for a surprise for the plot centers around rather serious issues that many family members confront:
1. Death of parents
2. Responsibility to elders
3. Serious illness
4. A demented parent
5. Placement of a loved one in the care of others
6. The quality of care provided for the elderly
It is difficult to express the feelings surfaced by The Savages as we witnessed brother and sister trying to care for a father, diagnosed with dementia, who failed to be loving or caring to them. The father is alone because his life partner dies and her children don't want the responsibility of caring or providing shelter for him.
From the outset, the movie will shock viewers with the crude reality of mental health issues confronted by the unfortunate individuals who suffer dementia. The acting is superb. Wendy, played by Laura Linney is the lonely play writer sister who has terrible relationships because she does not want the commitment to developing a family of her own. Jon, masterfully played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, is the brother who also can't commit to a relationship, living in an apartment that is so cluttered that when his sister visits and he offers the couch, which is covered with magazines and school papers, we hear her cynical comment: "what couch?"
The range of emotions displayed brought us to laughter, being upset, understanding the guilt and anger felt by the siblings, empathy and finally we were happy to see the transformation, the catharsis experienced by the family members as they learn much about themselves from the experiences shared.
Not an easy movie to watch, but an excellent view as to real human drama. A poignant film, don't miss it!