Review of The Savages (2007) by Andrea M — 21 Oct 2010

The running time for Tamara Jenkins' comedy-drama The Savages is one hour and 54 minutes, but it felt like seconds to me because watching the movie was like examing my own relationships with family. Coincidentally, my grandfather died two days before the movie opened, and though I was not there when it happened, the movie gave me a clear description of what my mother and grandmother were doing by his deathbed. And when the movie premiered at Sundance in 2007, all the positive responses from viewers were related to personal experiences. It's hard to see this movie and not experience any of the problems it focuses on.

I'll try to describe my thoughts on the movie's storyline as best I can here. It takes place at a retirement community in Arizona where Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco) lives with Doris Metzger, his girlfriend for many years. We find out immediately he's entering stages of dementia and can't provide much help for his ailing companion whose family hired a caretaker for her. One day Lenny doesn't flush the toilet when the caregiver needs to use the bathroom, and when he's forced from his breakfast to go flush the toilet we see him leaving an obscene note on the mirror with his excretion. This is where he is no longer able to support himself mentally.

Meanwhile in New York City, Lenny's playwright daughter Wendy (Laura Linney) gets a message on her answering machine regarding the incident. But that comes after we know more about her personal life involving having an affair with a married man and trying to submit her plays to get her name selected in the Guggenheim foundation. She then calls her older brother Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a college theater professer in Buffalo, who insists their father's condition is not severe. But soon after Doris suddenly passes away, Jon and Wendy make the cross-country flight to Sky Harbor Airport where they immediately start arguing about her checking luggage for one day. "Two days and one night. Excuse me if I plan on changing my clothes." Wendy answers. That and so many other exchanges in The Savages are genuine sibling behaviors. I hate when siblings in movies are often caricatures and get along almost too well. The Savages almost does not compromise for any of their disputes; they are uneasy with each other virtually every time one of them speaks.

Because Lenny and Doris were never married, Arizona laws deny Lenny of any of her property. And because he's too sick to go on assisted living, Jon heads back almost immediately to establish residency at a nursing home near his house. Wendy, being the younger sister, has to stay back and watch their dad at the hospital, and to bring all of his belongings from the retirement home. Along the way, we see more development between the two grown kids and why their father nearly abandoned them at an early age. "Maybe Dad didn't abandon us, maybe he just forgot who we were." Wendy says at one point regarding his disease. Not much is said about who their mother is and we hardly see what kind of man Lenny is, but what the movie is so good at is giving the impression we know exactly who each individual is without spending too much time with setups.

With their father finally established at the nursing home in Buffalo, but not before a genuine and humiliating moment during the flight, we learn more about the troubles the two siblings are going through. Both Jon and Wendy are middle-aged and unmarried, and Jon will not marry his Polish girlfriend of three years even if it saves her from being deported. Jon is also currently busy on trying to complete his best work, writing a book on theater mogul Bertolt Brecht. He too, failed to make it to Guggenheim. And later in the movie we find a good deal more about their attempts in that business, as well as what makes things so difficult for each other. Wendy is uptight emotional, while Jon is often inconsiderate and critical.

The Savages is a movie I don't think I could answer for. It is a movie everyone can identify with. Whether it's involving a dying parent or if it's about distant relations, the movie captures all the pain and love we felt growing up. I know so much of it reminded me of when my grandfather died and why I had so much bad luck with my older brother. It's also a big coincidence that the retirement community was in Sun City when my grandparents lived in Sun Lakes on the other side of Phoenix. And my grandfather indeed could no longer function when he had an incident involving his excretion. But at least getting it all over the rug and stepping on it is better than writing on the walls with it.