In Tamara Jenkins' brutally frank and occasionally funny look at lives shaped by disappointment and fear, their love for each other binds them through the worst of times.
Comment
01/24/08
The Savages (2007)
89
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:162
Fresh:144
Rotten:18
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: Thanks to a tender, funny script from director Tamara Jenkins, and fine performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney, this film delivers a nuanced, beautifully three-dimensional look at the struggles and comforts of family bonds.
Theatrical Release:25-01-2008
Synopsis: Director Tamara Jenkins made audiences sit for nearly a decade for her follow-up to the hilarious dark comedy SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS, but it's been worth the wait. Like her previous film, THE... [More]
Starring: Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman
Director: Tamara Jenkins
Reviews for The Savages
The latter half suffers from degenerative indie-itis, that epidemic syndrome whose main symptom is unwarranted interest in the ennui afflicting well-read urban misfits.
01/23/08
Hoffman and Linney make a great comedy team, even though the movie they're in is a sometimes grim affair...
01/21/08
Two wry, sad, occasionally funny but always unflinching hours.
01/18/08
The fact that "Savages" looks at an ordinary and often inevitable part of life shouldn't obscure the fact that this is a beautifully written and wonderfully played film, capturing the nuances of family dynamics as assuredly as any film I've seen in quite
01/18/08
...bitter and heartbreaking, an unsentimental examination of human needfulness that allows for traces of grace amid the ashes.
01/18/08
A goo-free comedy.
01/18/08
A black comedy that frequently goes down like the most bitter coffee imaginable.
01/17/08
The moral is: Don't get sick and don't get old.
01/17/08
It could almost be accused of 'middle-class whining' -- something Linney's character frets about -- if not for its sharply observant conversations and strikingly personal performances.
01/17/08
More often than not, it's a film that rings true and has much to offer.
01/15/08
...Hoffman and Linney ably step into their complex, sporadically unlikable characters.
01/15/08
The Savages, writer/director Tamara Jenkins's second film, is easily the best comedy of the year.
01/15/08
Hoffman and Linney's great skill shows in their picking up on the nuances of sibling hierarchy and habits borne of years and familiarity.
01/12/08
Jenkins is a provocateur to be sure, but she also has a heart, which is why her films don't come across as mean even when dealing comically with issues of death, debilitation, and emotional trauma.
01/01/08
Painfully poignant, earnest, sad, witty and beautiful. Pretty depressing up until the final, uplifting scene.
12/31/07
Hoffman, Linney and Bosco together generate such magnificent performances projecting a richly textured sense of the agony and ecstasy of a family in complicated meltdown, that it feels about as close to shared DNA as you can get.
12/29/07
It is the very particular humanity of the characters involved that makes it a successful and unique work of art.
12/28/07
dark, tart, and oddly joyful
12/26/07
Powerful, painful and yet unerringly funny as it points out our emotional and physical vulnerabilities, this is a film that finds the humor in tragedy while keeping both omnipresent.
12/26/07
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