The Savages: Strong, heartfelt dramedy about "kids" dealing with an aging parent

* * * 1/2 (out of 5)


Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney in a movie together should be gold and their performances are in the dark dramedy, The Savages. The movie rests comfortably on their acting, but for some reason cuts out another stellar performer, Philip Bosco, from getting in on the action. Hoffman and Linney play near 40 year old siblings who have to deal with the rapid decline of their aging father, Bosco. Lenny Savage was a bad father who beat his kids and eventually left them for another woman. Their mother was even worse, abandoning them when they were quite young. As damaged souls, the "kids" are now barely functioning adults, channeling their pain through difficult careers. Linney is Wendy, a career freelancer who is a wannabe playwright. Hoffman is Jon, a professor of social resistance theatre. Obviously, neither one is making a killing with their higher educations.

Writer/director Tamara Jenkins (The Slums of Beverly Hills) doesn't give Bosco enough to do, but lets her two leads fly with the material. While their father struggles with dementia, Hoffman and Linney have their own form of craziness to deal with. Wendy pretends to have a problem with her uterus to gain some kind of sympathy from her married, older lover and Jon cries every time his girlfriend makes eggs, I guess as some kind of response to his own mother leaving him. Wendy's immaturity extends to her stealing office supplies at work and sinking to new lows to get grant money for her play. For once, Hoffman's character is the less crazy person in a movie.

Linney does a remarkable job here. She takes a potentially dislikable character and turns her into someone you root for and even like. While her face always looks like it's on the brink of crying, she doesn't bring you down with her performance. Like her character does for her father, she manages to find light in really dark corners. I also loved the depiction of nursing homes. Hoffman's Jon says it perfectly, they are places you go to die. Dying is never pretty and when nursing homes try to look pretty, it's never for the residents, but for the guilty families. The more guilt you feel, the more you will be willing to pay.


The Freditor