Before watching 'The Savages' I had expectations, and that's because of the high standard quality of the American indie-genre, and because of the incredibly high standard of the great Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film feels carefully nuanced from the glowing opening scene in Sun City where Lenny Savage is in the early phases of dementia to the messy lives of the two siblings, Wendy and Jon, living in different New York City areas, both drowning in a confused if failing theater-drama interest.
Laura Linney received a Academy Award-nomination for her turn as Wendy Savage, a woman so in fear of the midlife-crisis-cliché that she feels more in touch with her married boyfriend's dog. Her emotional turbulence feels quirky, just as in real life, and her determination of placing the estranging dad in a place not called nursing home feels like a curtain-closing of the life that she doesn't entirely embrace. This is the life her brother, Jon Savage (another brilliant performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman), so harshly describes to her as a fu**ing horror show. He never finishes his great book about Brecht, and whether it's not marrying his polish girlfriend or it's crying over his breakfast-eggs, Jon seems cynical, worn-out and blackened. It's in-between these two we find the heart of the film; their relationship developing through exactly their father's illness.
Tamara Jenkins dearly directs her three main characters and creates one of the finest films of 2007.
Laura Linney received a Academy Award-nomination for her turn as Wendy Savage, a woman so in fear of the midlife-crisis-cliché that she feels more in touch with her married boyfriend's dog. Her emotional turbulence feels quirky, just as in real life, and her determination of placing the estranging dad in a place not called nursing home feels like a curtain-closing of the life that she doesn't entirely embrace. This is the life her brother, Jon Savage (another brilliant performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman), so harshly describes to her as a fu**ing horror show. He never finishes his great book about Brecht, and whether it's not marrying his polish girlfriend or it's crying over his breakfast-eggs, Jon seems cynical, worn-out and blackened. It's in-between these two we find the heart of the film; their relationship developing through exactly their father's illness.
Tamara Jenkins dearly directs her three main characters and creates one of the finest films of 2007.