The Savages not only boasts Oscar-worthy performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as a self-absorbed brother and sister, its attention to detail makes it sweetly funny and genuine.
The Savages (2007)
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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... 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 SAVAGES is a sometimes-funny, sometimes-sad look at family dynamics, but this time around the sense of humor is more wry than riotous. Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman play Wendy and Jon Savage, a pair of siblings on the cusp of middle age. She's earning money in New York City as a temp as she writes an autobiographical play about their childhood, while he lives in Buffalo, teaching college and finishing a book on Bertolt Brecht. Their estranged father (Philip Bosco) lives across the country, but the Savages reluctantly rush to see him when they learn that he may not be able to take care of himself any longer. Jon and Wendy bicker over problems old and new as they try to figure out what's best for a man they barely know. Like Noah Baumbach in THE SQUID AND THE WHALE and MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, writer-director Jenkins knows how to mine family dysfunction for both comedy and drama. Jon and Wendy tear into each other as only people connected by blood can, but their fighting feels entirely genuine, largely thanks to the performances of Linney and Hoffman. Though they'll get most of the buzz for their roles, character actor Bosco is heartbreaking as their aging father. Though his decline is difficult to watch, the actor's performance is absolutely mesmerizing. [More]
Starring: Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman
Starring: Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman, Gbenga Akinnagbe
Director: Tamara Jenkins
Director: Tamara Jenkins
Screenwriter: Tamara Jenkins
Producer: Ted Hope, Anne Carey, Erica Westheimer
Composer: Stephen Trask
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Reviews for The Savages
A comedy of discomfort, The Savages is a brilliantly acted film about people who are kidding themselves, a state of being that is as funny as it is sad.
The Savages isn't cheery holiday fare, ... and yet Jenkins makes her film unexpectedly uplifting, in a small-scale, real-life kind of way.
An acerbic, wonderfully acted comedy-drama about family ties and mortality.
The film is savagely funny about the indignities of old age, yet optimistic that it’s never too late to have a happy childhood.
The Savages isn’t so much about plot as about moments, and this film -- thanks to Linney and Hoffman -- is filled with keepers.
Reality wounds but also heals in The Savages, writer-director Tamara Jenkins' cuttingly funny-sad family drama.
Tamara Jenkins' 'The Savages': Laura Linney, The Most Overlooked Great Gctress of Her Generation, Soars with Authenticity
In the end it's worth a look, but you might wish you had some of Wendy's happy pills that she ripped off from her father's dead girlfriend.
The dynamic that operates throughout this film is fantasy versus reality, not just in the lives of the characters but in American life in general.
Tamara Jenkins has made a movie about something that lots of people are going through but nobody wants to deal with, not even in life, much less in entertainment. And she's done it fearlessly, with the right mix of humor and horror.
Director Jenkins handles this tricky material with tact and a nuanced touch -- there are laughs, but the circumstance is real enough to resonate with anyone who's experienced the confusion, guilt, and disorientation that such a circumstance imposes.
The humor in The Savages is born out of the performances by Linney and Hoffman, two actors who can convey as much about their characters as the ones around them with a seemingly effortless, instinctual ability.
Jenkins couldn't have found actors more suited to straddle the delicate, subtle line between detestable and sympathetic.
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