The Savages
|
List Price: Our Price: $16.99 You Save: $10.99 (39%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $3.49 (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: Overshadowed by the overrated JUNO.
Summary: 4 Stars
This film should have been in the place Juno was this year at the awards. It did everything Juno did not in dealing with an important social issue that effects us as a society. There was a perfect balance of comedy and seriousness. The wisecracks came out of real characters and were believable in the context the film set up.
The acting was superb. My only complaint was Laura Linney not removing her bra during a intimate scene. It runs contrary to reality and reminds me I am watching a film. Female and male anatomy alike should not be regarded as so special and private. it's just body parts. We all have them. Back in the 70s films showed way more, were more realistic and had PG or even G ratings. Kramer VS Kramer showed JoBeth Williams topless and it was no big deal. Laura Linney is a great actress who just needed to take her top off for that scene and act with, not hide her body.
The story and film itself were excellent otherwise. While it is not a film to throw on all the time it was good and I did enjoy it a great deal. Bravo.
Movie 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: Of bedpans and Brecht
Summary: 4 Stars
Syemour Phillip Hoffman, the Charles Laughton of his generation, delivers a superb performance in "The Savages", the latest offering from writer-director Tamara Jenkins ("Slums of Beverly Hills"). In a bit of inspired casting, Jenkins has paired Hoffman up with one of the finest character actresses around, Laura Linney. Hoffman and Linney are Jon and Wendy Savage, middle-aged siblings who find themselves saddled with the responsibility of caring for their estranged father, who has been diagnosed with dementia. When his "girlfriend" of twenty years dies, the elder Savage, Lenny (beautifully played by veteran stage actor Philip Bosco) is kicked to the curb by her adult children, who now legally own the house that the couple shared.
Neither Savage sibling is well-equipped to take care of this sudden and unwelcome burden. Each is suffering through their own mid-life crisis, and lead somewhat self-absorbed lives. Wendy is an aspiring playwright, supporting herself by working temp jobs as the writer's grant rejection letters pile up. She lives alone in a modest NYC apartment (with the requisite cat) and gobbles down anti-depressants while slogging her way through a half-hearted affair with a married neighbor. Jon is a drama professor at an upstate college, spending his spare time doing obsessive research for a book on "the dark comedy" of Bertolt Brecht (in one particularly wonderful scene, he grooves to Kurt Weill while cruising in his car, high on Percocet). His love life is also in disarray; his live-in girlfriend of several years is heading back to her native Poland because her visa has expired (along with any hopes of a marriage proposal from the commitment-shy Jon).
Necessity sparks an uneasy family reunion as Jon and Wendy scramble to find a nursing home for Lenny, whose moments of lucidity are marked by the demeaning verbal abuse that obviously drove the siblings apart from their father in the first place (and explains the self-esteem issues that pervade their adult life). It doesn't take long for long-dormant rivalries and simmering resentments between the brother and sister to re-emerge as well.
This is one of those family angst dramas that could have easily turned into a wrist-slitting downer in the Eugene O'Neill/Harold Pinter vein. After all, it does deal with some heavy issues; existential middle age despair and the looming prospect of the inevitable downward spiral of our parents' "golden years" does not exactly make for "feel-good" fare. However, writer-director Jenkins strikes a nice balance here; while her script doesn't sugar-coat the film's central theme (i.e., we're all gonna die) with maudlin sentimentality, she still provides just the right amount of levity and very real, life-affirming moments to make this an engaging watch. It doesn't hurt to have the monster talents of Hoffman and Linney on board. I know this is a dreaded clich?, but they made me laugh, and they made me cry. I'd rate this one three and a half Percocets.
Movie Review: Actors
Summary: 5 Stars
Sometimes they save a bad movie. Sometimes they knock a good movie out of the park. This movie is a grand slam. Actors at the top of their game. You might say... too depessing., not enough action. It's time to grow up. You will not forget this work.Movie Review: docked two points for the ending
Summary: 3 Stars
I won't include any spoiler but let me just say that the last 30 seconds of this film takes it from five stars to three. Simply appalling -- despite the wonderful performances and what is, up to that point, a truly intelligent and powerful film. How COULD they?