Thursday, February 21, 2008
The fact that I couldn’t personally relate to The Savages, and yet found it delightful, is a telltale sign of a great movie, as good movies are wholesomely enjoyed by the people they were made for, but great movies transcend demographics.
The movie’s opening montage shows old ladies working on a synchronized swimming routine and a golf-carted grandfather blissfully taking in the monotony of Sun City, Ariz., aka Retirement Paradise, USA. Enter Wendy and Jon Savage (Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman), two siblings reuniting to take their father (Philip Bosco) back East where they both live because, as Linney eloquently puts it, “He’s been writing on the walls with his shit.” Diagnosed with dementia, their dad is disoriented to the point of believing that the nursing home his kids have put him in is a hotel. But for all of his confused outbursts, it’s his children who end up needing the therapy only family can provide. While caring for their father in his final days, Hoffman and Linney work through feelings of guilt about the quality of care they’re giving their father and their more serious personal issues, which drag further drama along with them.
Don’t worry: It’s not the maudlin melodrama that my summary may have made it out to be. Yes, The Savages does have heart and emotion, but it’s also frickin’ hilarious. More about exploring the problems of brother and sister than those of Papa Savage—who is relatively content in his ignorance—writer/director Tamara Jenkins has a knack for putting Hoffman and Linney in awkward environments and then stepping back and letting them react, usually without any words at all. And then there are the sibling fights, which are so well done that you’ll want to step on-screen and yell, “Hey, break it up!” The brisk pace and subtle humor—with the occasional outburst—reminded me of Sideways. This turned out to be no coincidence: Sideways writer Alexander Payne produced The Savages.
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