The Savages
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Movie Reviews of The Savages
Movie Review: Reality
Summary: 5 Stars
This film accurately depicts the reality of life. You laugh, you cry, and
you just carry on - that is the whole reality of life.
Movie Review: laura linney
Summary: 5 Stars
I like laura linney in any film great writing and can hit close to home must seeMovie Review: I HAD to write a review of a film that resonated so deeply for me
Summary: 4 Stars
This would have been a 5 star movie if not for the ending. Even so, I would urge you to see it. They got so much right, even perfect, in MOST parts of this film. I was waiting for the DVD to come out and I ordered it (as of this review, it has not arrived but I've seen this one already)
UPDATE: Having now gone through the additional and special features on the DVD, I also wanted to say that they are not just simple "add ons" but help add perspective to this film. The actors speak about the fact the complexities of family relationships and Seymour-Hoffman adds his take (which can also be seen here on Amazon's own snippet from the film for now) that it isn't normal for children to be estranged from a parent. In this case, the children of a very difficult father are alienated from him.
The film struck home for me because I'm helping to care for two relatives, both elderly, one in a nursing home. Trust me, I know authenticity when it comes to catching the dynamics of family relationships, dealing with an elderly parent and all the issues that come into play. Even in the best of situations, there are tough days. Aging can go down hard and mental and physical decline, as portrayed so aptly in this film, isn't easy to watch.
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney are also excellent as brother and sister who have their own struggles with facing reality and dealing with an imperfect father. They have their own flawed and difficult lives and then, suddenly, they have total responsibility for their father, who is left without the girlfriend or backup support that the siblings thought was there. Now what?
That is the plot, in short. Hoffman manages to be clumsy but engaging, a trait he seems to have made into an art form in many films. In this one, he and his sister (Linney) have both tension and a bond between them. I could feel their pain when they were together and Linney's judgment of her brother's lifestyle...and yet they had to find a way to get through the situation with their father as well, however awkward that might be.
Of the two, Linney is the one who tries to be the "pleaser" and fix things. She goes through bouts of denial while her brother is less apt to turn away from reality. Yet Linney also seems to have more sympathy at times. Both Seymour-Hoffman and Linney work so well together, seeming perfectly believable as two very opposite sibling, both damaged by a very flawed parent. Now they have to care for that parent.
Everything seemed so real to me. I'd been in similar situations, faced with unexpected crisis. I know that "bumbling through" is sometimes the best we can do, although there are those of us who step up to the plate with grace, tact and composure at all times. This is a film for the rest of us.
Partly, I guess, this movie was about having to grow up, in spite of oneself. I am still struggling to be articulate about it because it pulled at me so strongly that it is hard to be objective - or anything approaching it. I simply loved this movie! It is, however, VERY slow-paced and the drama may not appeal to those who want something less real. It isn't really a feel good, escapist movie. It could even be called depressing by some, although I felt inspired by it, like someone understood the particular difficulty of dealing with an aged parent.
Also, Linney and Hoffman aren't schmaltzy. If you want to know if this film is for you, consider it a "slice of life" film about two people who have to handle a father's physical and emotional decline, senility and all that. If that doesn't sound appealing to you, by all means avoid it.
However, this film made me think about aging - and I had already thought about it plenty (or so I believed). It gave me new perspective on sibling relationships, flawed parents and it also was a very engaging film, in its own niche area.
I enjoyed the film immensely, with the exception of the ending - and I have to be honest about that, so there it is. It isn't nearly as dark as my outline of it may make it sound. There are quirky moments and humorous ones.
I do agree with the reviewer who noted that people who like films like The Good Girl and Little Children may also like this one. I like those types of films and am constantly intrigued by they psychological oddities of the human character. This film explores that territory, with a story line involving two siblings and an aging parent. Because so many Baby Boomers are both aging and handling elderly parents, this is a theme that deserves plenty of attention. I'm glad this film explores the subject.
Movie Review: A Slice Of Life... As Bleak As It May Seem
Summary: 4 Stars
The entire Savage family in Writer/Director Tamara Jenkins' first film in three years suffers from delusions of their own mind. The patriarch, Lenny (Philip Bosco), is deteriorating in mental health due to his age and lack of environmentally challenging stimuli, but the "kids," Wendy and Jon (Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman) have no such excuse. Rather their imaginations contort the facts and history of their family (Wendy is working on a "semi-autobiographical" tale about a brother and sister who are "forced to fend for themselves" at the hand of an abusive father after their "mother goes out on a date only to never return") and keep them from maturing (Jon breaks up with his long time girlfriend when her visa expires, sending her back to Poland). Though Jon points out that they "are not in therapy right now; this is real life," the central theme in The Savages appears to be that all the therapy in the world can't heal those who just aren't ready to accept it. Though Wendy seems to have taken on the brunt of it (with her pill-popping and extramarital affair), everyone in The Savages is so stuck on the mistakes of the past that they are unable to forgive, let alone try to move forward with their lives. Though The Savages depicts one very specific family's journey, at its core is a state of mind that is much more common than perhaps admitted and therefore universal.
When Lenny's girlfriend passes away, he is left without companionship and homecare, so both siblings travel to Sun City, Arizona for the funeral and to see to longer-term placement of the man whom they both moved to the opposite coast to escape. Arriving at their father's hospital bed, they are reduced once again to small children in his presence, even though he is strapped into bed and tied up with catheters and IV drips. The Savages is a coming-of-age tale if there ever was one, but its protagonists are already middle-aged. Slowly, perhaps even reluctantly, Wendy learns the importance of caring for someone else, and in turn, takes a cold, hard look at how sad her life has become. Her neuroses translate into an obsession to do the best she can for her father, in almost a nurturing, spousal way. Jon, on the other hand, just gives into his father's worsening condition, and rather than try to control it, he accepts it. In their own way, they each change subtly, but surely, in the short timeframe the film spans. At times they seem to take one small step forward and two giant leaps back, but it's a gradual process; they cannot magically be fixed overnight. As Jon said: "This is not [a movie]; this is real life." It takes the need to care for the man who never did for them for these two perpetual adolescents to finally begin to grow up.
The weight of film relies on Linney and Hoffman's shoulders, and in less capable actors' hands, the characters would come off as insane drones, but because both are so known for (and so good at) playing "everymen," they add a level of credibility and believability... even upon revealing yet another fantastical layer of personality (such as Wendy's admission that the grant she received was not for her play but actually from FEMA because of 9/11). Jenkins directs her actors to be natural and emote their feelings with slight rolls of their eyes or slouching shoulders, and The Savages, as a film about an average family, is only stronger for that.
The Savages on DVD offers two brief extended scenes, one which is the opening dance routine, and one which features the motel lounge singers. Both are superfluous, however, as the real attraction is the EPK-esque "Making of" featurette entitled "Meet The Savages." In it, interviews with the cast and Jenkins share their inspiration during both the development and pre-production periods. Jenkins points out in this "extra" that she opts for "slice of life" characters and moments and prefers observational humor rather than more traditional on-screen humor. It is an unnecessary admission after actually viewing The Savages, which blurs the line between comedy and tragedy, but it is still a refreshing approach to filmmaking nonetheless.
Jenkins also shares a few personal photos in a bonus behind-the-scenes gallery, and of course the disc offers trailers from other upcoming Fox releases. The Savages' theatrical run was short-lived--a blink-and-you-missed-it-- and didn't have the opportunity to reach the masses who would have undoubtedly identified with the story had they known it was there. Thankfully, though, like the Savages, the film itself has been given a second chance at life with its DVD release.
Movie Review: When the child becomes the parent
Summary: 4 Stars
As we move ever further into the 21st Century, more and more Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers are finding themselves thrust into the role of primary caregiver to their ailing and aging parents. Such a situation is challenging enough even under the best of circumstances, but what if the person who needs taking care of was never a loving and nurturing parent to begin with, or the middle-aged child has more than enough problems on his own plate to deal with? This is the dilemma faced by John and Wendy Savage, a brother and sister who have long been estranged from the father who left them when they were youngsters but who has now come back into their lives after he can no longer take care of himself. Despite the fact that the siblings feel little emotional attachment to their father, they agree to do the decent thing by caring for him in his final days, even though his dementia makes it nearly impossible for them to heal old wounds or build a filial bridge between the two generations.
Meanwhile, John and Wendy, both unmarried and childless, aren't exactly what one would call models of highly functional and successful adults in their own right. John is a theater professor and part-time author who lives in a shabby Buffalo apartment with a girl from Poland who is being deported because John - commitment-phobe that he is - can't bring himself to marry her. Wendy is an unsuccessful playwright who pays the bills with temp jobs and has been carrying on a dead-end affair with a married man for years.
"The Savages" works on a dual level, exposing the grim realities of aging, while at the same time exploring the complexities of familial (i.e. parent-child and sibling) relationships. The strain on everyone caught in this type of a predicament can be devastating and overwhelming, and writer/director Tamara Jenkins examines the situation from all angles. John and Wendy have an understandable urge to live their own lives, and they feel ill-equipped to cope with this new burden that has been suddenly placed upon them. The situation also opens up old wounds related to their upbringing and heightens their own feelings of inadequacy and failure. John and Wendy are also not above turning against one another when the world gets to be a bit too much for them to handle, wounding each other with verbal thrusts and jabs carefully aimed at their various weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
The subject matter is obviously dark and brooding, but the filmmakers inject a surprising amount of biting, whistling-past-the-graveyard humor to help lighten the load. They are also helped in this regard by the rich and engaging performances of its three leading actors. Philip Seymour Hoffman is remarkably quiet and subdued in his role of John, the more cynical of the two children who feels a little less guilt-ridden about doing the minimum for a man who never took on the very role of paternal caregiver to his children that they are assuming for him. As the father, Philip Bosco rises to the difficult challenge of portraying a man who`s lost much of his ability to connect with the world around him. But it is Laura Linney who provides the warm human center that lifts the movie above the dreary nature of its material. It is Wendy who struggles most with doing what is right by trying to make the last days of a man who abandoned her as comfortable as possible. In her every word and gesture, Linney shows that she understands the paradoxical nature of the character she is being called on to play, revealing her weaknesses and vulnerabilities, while, at the same time, showing her to be a woman of strength and character, even if she has trouble displaying much of either of those qualities in her own life. In fact, we sense that Wendy does quite a bit of growing up in the course of her struggles. Wendy may hate her father for never being there for her and her brother, but she knows maturity means moving beyond one's bitterness over the past and responding to the basic humanity of even the most undeserving among us.
What I like about "The Savages" is that it doesn't devolve into angst-ridden hand-wringing or self-aggrandizing melodramatics in dealing with its topic. Instead, in this her fifth film as a director, Jenkins illuminates a difficult subject with subtlety, insight and compassion. Definitely one worth seeing.