The Savages (film)

The Savages

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Tamara Jenkins
Produced by Ted Hope
Anne Carey
Erica Westheimer
Written by Tamara Jenkins
Starring Laura Linney
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Bosco
Music by Stephen Trask
Cinematography Mott Hupfel
Edited by Brian A. Kates
Production
company
This is that
Ad Hominem Enterprises
Distributed by Fox Searchlight
Release dates
  • November 28, 2007 (2007-11-28)
Running time
 113 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $9 million
Box office $9,610,042

The Savages is a 2007 American drama film written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. It stars Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Alexander Payne and Jenkins' husband Jim Taylor were two of the executive producers. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim.

Plot

After drifting apart emotionally over the years, two single siblings — Wendy (Linney) and Jon (Hoffman) — band together to care for their estranged, elderly father, Lenny (Philip Bosco), who is rapidly slipping into dementia. Wendy and Jon first travel to Sun City, Arizona to attend the funeral of their father's girlfriend of 20 years. When they arrive, they are told that their father signed a non-marriage agreement and will not have rights to any of her property. They then move him to a nursing home in Buffalo, where Jon is a theater professor working on a book about Bertolt Brecht. Wendy, who is an aspiring, but unsuccessful, playwright, moves from New York City to help establish their father in Buffalo.

Neither of the siblings are close with Lenny. It is implied that he was a physically and emotionally abusive father when Jon and Wendy were growing up and they cut him out of their lives. They were also abandoned by their mother at a young age. Their dysfunctional family life appears to have left Wendy and Jon emotionally crippled and unable to sustain a relationship. She is sleeping with an unattainable married man 13 years her senior and he cannot commit to a Polish woman who must return to Kraków after her visa expires.

Their visits to the nursing home and their father's eventual death allow them to reevaluate their lives and to grow emotionally. In the end, Wendy has broken up with her married lover, but has adopted his dog, which he had planned to put down. She is also seen working on the production of her play about their terrible childhood, while Jon is leaving for a conference in Poland where it is suggested he may reconnect with the woman he had let go. The film closes with Wendy running with her lover's dog alive, running with the aid of a wheeled hip cast, suggesting a mode of flawed yet persevering life for both siblings.

Cast

Critical reception

The film received very favorable reviews from critics. As of October 14, 2012, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 89% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 113 reviews.[1] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 85 out of 100, based on 35 reviews.[2]

Time magazine's Richard Schickel named the film #7 of his Top 10 Movies of 2007, and praises both the cast and writer-director:

These actors are unimprovable as, somehow, they find a certain decency under the pressure of their grinding familial chore, a reason to hope that slightly better days may be ahead for them once their duty has been done. Writer-director Tamara Jenkins is less interested in heroically inspiring us than she is in showing us the values to be found in the more modest forms of dutifulness.[3]

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top 10 lists of the best films of 2007.[4]

Awards and nominations

References

  1. ↑ "The Savages - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  2. ↑ "Savages, The (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  3. ↑ Schickel, Richard; "The 10 Best Movies"; time.com
  4. ↑ "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2008-02-23. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
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