Review of The Savages (2007) by Stuart K — 06 Feb 2015

Written and directed by Tamara Jenkins (Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)) and produced by Alexander Payne. This touching yet gently amusing drama is an honest look at the upheaval of family, and decisions that we all have to face one day regarding our parents.

It's got some brilliant performances at it's core, and it puts it's characters first, and it has an endearing tenderness to it's heart. Sister and brother Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) and Jon Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman) live in and around New York, but they've been drifting apart over the years.

However, they get a call about their father Lenny (Philip Bosco) who has been living with a girlfriend in Sun City, Arizona, and Lenny seems to be suffering from dementia. When Lenny's girlfriend dies, he has no legal right to her property, and is asked to leave.

Wendy and Jon take him back to New York and they have to find a nursing home that will be right for Lenny. However, they've never been close to Lenny, as he was a difficult father to live with, and they cut him out of their lives.

On the surface, this could have been a very depressing and emotionally upsetting film, but it has an air of quirkiness to it, and something rings quite true about the story, (producer Payne touched upon similar themes in Nebraska (2013)), but Linney, Hoffman and Bosco hold the film together wonderfully, and it's almost a theatrical piece, and it's interesting that theatre plays a big part throughout the film.