Estranged siblings Wendy (Laura Linney) and John (Philip Seymour Hoffman) Savage reunite to deal with their ailing father Lenny (Philip Bosco) who is slowly dying and suffers from dementia, placing him in a nursing him close to the latter's Buffalo residence. Forced to live under one roof for the first time since childhood, both of them begin to learn things about the other they never took the time to know before now.
With their lives suddenly on hold, Wendy and Jon battle about the best way to handle their father's final days. While neither expects to reconcile with the man they long ago purposefully distanced themselves from, both siblings can't help but want to treat him better at the end of his life then he ever did during the early stages of their own.
Deservedly nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay), writer/director Tamara Jenkins' The Savages is a wise, witty, moving, emotional and at time fitfully funny dramatic-comedy that left me stunned and speechless. The first time I saw it back in November I almost didn't know quite what it was I had just experienced, each of the picture's nuances and motifs so close to the bone I'd almost felt like I'd lived this story right there alongside Wendy and Jon.
Revisiting the picture on DVD, I was struck by how much eviscerating force it still retained even though I knew what was coming and the pathways it was going to take to get there. More than once I found myself battling away tears through a muffled giggle, my gut twisting and turning from the combined one-two punch of the unflinching tragicomic dramatics Jenkins unflinchingly uncoils and the unique peculiarities these types of moments in our lives feel so silly, surreal and sometimes even absurd. This is a movie to savor both for what it says as well as for its audacity to not resort to cliché or saccharine emotionalism, all of it so enthralling and invigorating the discussions it produces could very well last for days.
Both Linney and Hoffman are remarkable, each actor diving headfirst into characters bordering on the freakishly unlikable. Yet both actors humanize their squabbling siblings, and while they don't ever soften any of the duo's more unnerving edges they make them feel so honestly real and emotionally alive both Wendy and Jon begin to feel like long-lost friends we're only just now becoming reacquainted with.
Fox's DVD release of The Savages unfortunately leaves a lot to be denied. I interviewed Jenkins back in November and she is easily one of most intriguingly beguiling conversationalists I've ever had the pleasure to sit down with, so the lack of a commentary track on the film is both a disappointment and an irritant. Making matters worse, what is here is decidedly lackluster (a standard behind-the-scenes featurette, a couple of extended scenes and a photo montage of snapshots taken by the director during filming).
Thankfully, the movie itself is bracing and unforgettable, one of the very best 2007 had to offer. That alone makes The Savages worthy of a rental. For some, it might even make it worthy of a purchase. Either way, this is a film that simply shouldn't be missed.
