Review of Savages (2006) by Sophie P — 16 Oct 2008

It's schlock , which is a damn shame, considering the talent involved. Linney and PSH, who play brother and sister John and Wendy Savage (yes, John the Savage), are two of the best lead film stars working today.

They are 'charged' with the chore of taking care of their cantankerous father, and they bitch about it because they supposedly they had a bad childhood, a piece of story that could have been explored.

Anyway, this completes my Philip Seymour Hoffman filmography for 2007, and I can say his performance falls well behind that of Gus Avrakotos and Andy Hanson, of 'Charlie Wilson's War' and 'Before The Devil Knows You're Dead,' respectively.

He really just phones it in. As for Linney; she was exceptional. She will never let you down. The moments in the film which should be filled with emotion are completely devoid of it whatsoever. I kept thinking 'now they're going to embrace and cry, so I can cry myself,' but said scenes would just end and segue into an artsy montage.

Director Tamara Jenkins just seemed to want to establish great shots, and not establish a great story or great characters who develop throughout the film. Instead we get a jumble of really nice looking shots pieced together by black holes in spaces that should be occupied by deep, emotional characters lacking direction or narrative.

When (spoiler) their father dies (big surprise there), Wendy says to John, 'That's it?' That kind of summed up the whole for me. The felt that I may have been able to reflect on the film's subject material; dealing with the death of elders, an ordeal I've dealt with a few times.

I felt that I could shed some emotion based on the emotion in the film, but alas, I didn't drum up a single tear. It's too bad, because I was looking for a good cry. I guess it's back to 'The Green Mile' for that.