The Savages

Plot synopsis:
In sunny Arizona, elderly Lenny gets mad at his girlfriend's home health care aide and writes in feces on his bathroom wall.Lenny's daughter Wendy works as a temp in New York City and is an aspiring playwright. Her married boyfriend Larry comes by and she lies that she's had an abnormal pap smear.Wendy calls her brother Jon in Buffalo after hearing about their father's behavior. She is quite upset, but Jon, a drama professor, does not want to deal with it.Lenny's girlfriend suddenly dies in the middle of a manicure, and Wendy and Jon meet in Arizona. They are surprised to learn that their father has been placed in a hospital on the advice of his girlfriend's children, who no longer want him living in her house, based on a non-marital legal agreement.The siblings visit their father, who is quite angry they have taken two days to see him. A doctor explains to them that Lenny has dementia indicative of Parkinson's Disease.Wendy and Jon go to a nightclub to discuss what to do about Lenny. He insists that they find a nursing home; she is reluctant but doesn't know what else to do.Later that night at a hotel, Wendy overhears Jon in a phone call with his girlfriend Kasia, crying about their breakup.Jon leaves early the next morning. Wendy goes to retrieve Lenny's items from the house, which is already being sold.Back at the hotel, Wendy goes through her father's memorabilia. Jon calls from Buffalo to tell her that he's found a nursing home for Lenny.Wendy picks up Lenny at the hospital, and then endeavors to get him on a plane. In flight, she helps him to the bathroom, but his pants fall down in the aisle.Jon picks them up at the Buffalo airport and takes them to the nursing home, which is designated a "rehabilitation center" and looks like a hospital. After they leave Lenny in his new room, Wendy gets upset that he no longer knows where he is, and tells Jon she feels horrible.Jon brings Wendy to his house, which is filled with his academic research. Jon reassures Wendy that they are taking better care of their father than he ever took care of them. That night, Wendy explores the literature and videos that Jon compiled on nursing homes.Wendy and Jon go over paperwork with the home administrator, who already wants to know their plans for Lenny's funeral and burial.The siblings take Lenny to a diner to discuss his health care directives. Lenny is confused because he thinks he's been staying in a hotel, but angrily tells them to "pull the plug" if needed.Wendy is surprised to find Kasia at the house, who is returning to Poland the next day. He cries the next morning when Kasia makes him eggs for breakfast. Then he drives her to the airport.While playing tennis with Wendy, Jon injures his neck. He later needs her to help him with traction support at home, which he has used before. Jon asks her to stay in Buffalo through Thanksgiving to help with Lenny, and they argue about who has more important work. Wendy announces that she has won a Guggenheim fellowship that will fund her playwriting, much to Jon's surprise. He suggests they spend the holidays together and write, since he has been trying to finish a book on Bertolt Brecht.Wendy calls Larry back in New York, who is caring for her cat. She becomes dismayed and hangs up on him.The siblings go to a workshop on eldercare at the nursing home. They later attend a screening of The Jazz Singer that Lenny has requested. He becomes convinced that he is the protagonist and gets angry for a moment. Jon reassures his father, but he and Wendy are embarrassed by the racism of the movie.They take Lenny to a nicer nursing home for an interview, but he has trouble with basic questions. Afterward, Jon gets upset with Wendy for denying the impending death of their father.Wendy visits Lenny at the home and brings him a lava lamp.Larry comes to visit Wendy, bringing her cat. They drive around Buffalo, which Larry has never visited before, and go to Niagara Falls. They go to a hotel to have sex, but Wendy gets upset about their situation, claiming that he is going through a typical midlife crisis. He claims that she is the one with a problem.Wendy angrily leaves Larry when he drops her off at the home, where she finds Jon watching television with Lenny. She gets upset when she finds that his special pillow has been taken by a woman patient, and she takes it back. When she tries to return it to Lenny, he does not know who she is.Wendy goes outside and meets a male nurse named Jimmy, with whom she smokes. He invites her to his van to get out of the cold. She mentions that her mother is "out of the picture," and talks about her playwriting. Jimmy explains that her father's toes have not begun to curl, which is a sign of death within a few days (from air leaving the body), so he has some time yet to live.Wendy goes back to Lenny's room and looks at his toes, which are not curled.The siblings take Lenny out for Christmas shopping. Jon has discovered that Wendy did not receive the Guggenheim fellowship and she gets mad at him for investigating. On the drive back to the home, the two argue about who is more talented, while Lenny turns down his hearing aid and tunes them out.Wendy confesses to Jon that she got money from FEMA due to losing work after 9/11. He laughs at her.Back at the home, Lenny's toes begin to curl.Not knowing this, Wendy goes to the home to get her cat, where she is impressed that Jimmy has read her play. After a moment, she lunges forward and kisses him. She immediately apologizes, and he explains that he has a girlfriend.During a lecture on Brecht, Jon gets a call, and is visibly upset.The siblings go to the home, where Lenny has taken a bad turn. They spend the night, and the next morning Wendy awakes, touches her father's hand, and realizes he has died. She wakes up Jon, cries, looks at Lenny, and says, "That's it."They later gather his things from the home.Wendy returns to New York. Larry drops by her apartment with flowers. He tells Wendy that he needs to euthanize his old dog because her hips and legs have gone bad. Wendy hugs him, then he leaves.Six months later, Wendy meets Jon at a small theater, where she is mounting a play that re-enacts a scene of Lenny beating him as a child. He cries. On the way out, Jon tells her he is going to a conference in Poland to meet Kasia's "people."Wendy goes for a jog. Behind her is Larry's dog, following along with the assistance of a wheeled device.

Tags: romantic, magical realism, realism, sentimental

Review:
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Jon, the professor) and Laura Linney (as Wendy, aspiring playwright)are perfectly cast in the roles of the sister and brother who have to deal with their obnoxious, foul-mouthed elderly father, Lenny, played by Philip Bosco in a riveting performance.Their childhoods have been difficult, abuse is hinted at along with a runaway mother.
Throw in Phillip Brosco - who absolutely conquers the dementia that his character has (my aunt has dementia, so I see her all the time and know that his face and way of talking and mannerisms are all spot on) - and you've got three characters who are so strong alone that they're enough reason to see this movie, funny-touching script and story aside.While all three performances were incredible, I'd have to say that my favorite performance came from Hoffman.
I would say this is one of the most underrated movies of 2007.This movie has it all,acting,directing,comedy,true life etc.So many of us baby boomers can really identify with this movie and what the characters are going through.I had the opportunity of seeing this movie at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2007,and when the tickets went on sale to the public for the two showings they were both sold out within 30 minutes.This is a must see movie that just doesn't get the ravings that so many other movies are getting.Now that it has had two nominations for this year's Academy Awards let's hope that it gets its rightful recognition..
But that's not a bad thing, the other way around.This is a story about two siblings, Wendy (Laura Linney, who earned a surprise - and much deserved - Oscar nomination for this performance) and Jon Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who have to take care of their ailing, estranged father, Lenny (Philip Bosco).
Fathers and kids relationships have been discussed in tons of movies, but Tamara Jenkins (real life wife of Jim Taylor, co-author of Alexander Payne's scripts - they both produced this movie, by the way) managed to create something fresh and beautiful in its own simplicity (and, at the same time, so complex and painfully real, for all of those who've had difficult family relationships - and who hasn't?).
Despite the fact that the siblings feel little emotional attachment to their father, they agree to do the decent thing by caring for him in his final days, even though his dementia makes it nearly impossible for them to heal old wounds or build a filial bridge between them.Meanwhile, John and Wendy, both unmarried and childless, aren't exactly what one would call models of highly functional and successful adults in their own right.
Wendy is an unsuccessful playwright who pays the bills with temp jobs and has been carrying on a dead-end affair with a married man for years."The Savages" works on a dual level, exposing the grim realities of aging, while at the same time exploring the complexities of familial (i.e. parent-child and sibling) relationships.
Any film that features Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman is certainly worth seeing, and the acting in "The Savages" is excellent, not only by Linney and Hoffman but by Philip Bosco who plays their father, Lenny, an elderly man suffering from dementia.
The two main characters, played by two of the greatest actors working right now, are not only everyday sorts in terms of their occupations as unsuccessful playwright and theater professor drudging through a book on a forgotten literary icon, but are also similar enough in their occupations to infer the sharing of interests and pursuits that fueled the by-gone good times of their sibling relationship they might've had in the past.While the movie is quite funny, it doesn't spare the viewer anything, something that is incredibly admirable, especially for a breakthrough film for its filmmaker.
Yet we delight in the comfort of a film so down to earth, disillusioned, and mature and alive enough through its wryness to find congruence with humor.The oustanding highlights of The Savages are the two lead performances by Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who are so self-aware and realistic that one can't help but directly connect them with the characters they are playing.
That my be cathartic or it may be of comfort to realize the commonality of such experiences, but it may just leave you with difficult memories.Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney both turn in quality performances.Another movie with a similar theme that is equally as good, or better, is "I Never Sang for My Father," with Gene Hackman and Melvyn Douglas..
His daughter Wendy (Laura Linney) is a thirty-nine year-old freelancer and aspirant writer of screenplays for theater that lives in New York and has an affair with the middle-aged married man Larry (Peter Friedman).
The performance of the charming Laura Linney and the outstanding Philip Seymour Hoffman are top-notch but the subject of this film is not attractive and Philip Bosco performs a non-charismatic character and when he dies in the end, the viewer feels absolute indifference.
i am not a big fan of laura linney and find her voice irritating so to have her playing a slightly irritating character was not great, added to which she and phillip seymour Hoffman no way look like they could ever really be siblings unless one of them was found in a handbag...as i was watching the film, part of me was thinking that i did not like it at all - but somehow i couldn't give up on it.
Fans of Phillip Seymour Hoffman (MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III, CAPOTE) will be pleased with this entertaining outing, also staring Laura Linney and Philip Bosco.THE SAVAGES is the story of Jon (Hoffman) and Wendy (Linney) Savage, two somewhat distant siblings who are suddenly reunited when their father, Lenny (Bosco), is unexpectedly diagnosed with dementia.
A dramedy at its heart, hilarity unfolds when it is decided that Lenny will be put into a nursing home in Buffalo.In many ways this film is an acting showcase; Linney, Hoffman, and Bosco are all pitch-perfect in their respective roles and there are a number of strong supporting turns that effectively sell the story.
It's difficult to watch, sort of like 1998's Affliction only without the grizzled crankiness of Nick Nolte to soften the grim viewpoint.Wendy Savage (Linney) is 39 years old and works various temp jobs as she struggles to gain footing as a playwright; older brother Jon (Hoffman) is a philosophy professor.
Cinema has vast ways of coming full circle.The film centers around two grown-siblings Jon and Wendy Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney), who are brought together after they receive a call that their father Lenny (Philip Bosco), a man quickly falling prey to dementia, has been writing obscenities on the wall of his home in his own feces.
Lenny still has the luxury of living at home, but after this uncomfortable and peculiar episode, both Jon and Wendy must now try to face two demons - coming to terms that their dad may be approaching his final days and needs to be put in an assisting living community, as well as trying to look past the fact that their father neglected them quite a bit as kids, which may justify both souls being emotionally broken in the present.
Instead, Jenkins knows this material is not funny and needs to be handled with a delicate, intimate touch, one more focused on honest conversations nobody really wants to have instead of dialogs designed solely to evoke a few chuckles.Take a look at the film's best scene, where Jon, in a brutally honest tone, screams at Wendy for being way too oppressive when it comes to picking the right nursing home, ejecting their father from one place to visit another, completely eliminating all ability for him to get comfortable and adjust.
Wendy is facing middle age, sleeping with a married man and not having a lot of success getting grants for her work.Then both of them are faced with a problem they must face together: the dementia of their elderly father (Philip Bosco) in a place called Sun City in Arizona, where he was living with his girlfriend.
Wendy wants to assuage her guilt according to Jon. She takes out her anger by writing plays about her childhood.Realistic, heartwarming, difficult at times, "The Savages" is an excellent movie about a brother and sister bonding in a family crisis, and about coming to terms with an aging parent and their own lives now that their youth is over.This isn't a big movie.
While it does have a few good gags that made me laugh out loud once or twice, it's only about 25% comedy and the rest is a heavy, emotional drama about the painful subject of slow, lingering death.Two siblings (played by Laura Linney & Philip Seymour Hoffman) are burdened with the task of taking care of their estranged father who they learn is suffering from dementia.
This is a painfully funny and realistic picture in which Jenkins, who both wrote and directed, is blessed with three terrific performances.As the scatter-brained, academic would-be playwright, Laura Linney is blissfully on-the-ball and is matched perfectly by Philip Seymour Hoffman as her touchingly prosaic brother, failures both, in life and in love but without an ounce of bitterness at having been abandoned by the father they are now forced to care for.
And, it was done as well as a subject like it could be, especially to those of us who have already had the sobering experience of caring for aged parents now deceased.Phillip Seymour Hoffman played another of his great chameleon roles, burying his own persona within another in a fine and very understated characterization of John, the scruffy, academic older son of a very dysfunctional family upbringing, who reluctantly has to deal with his father's severe dementia problem that, in the beginning, is a nuisance to his demanding college professor/writer career.
Phillip Bosco, the fine character actor with a familiar face but not always known name, played their angry father in a realistic surly and selfish manner that most of us having witnessed it understand as a common manifestation of advanced dementia.That both siblings were seen as damaged, mostly accomplished by their very deficient and abused, angry father-only upbringing, was a main focus of the story, and it also showed well that the uncomfortable responsibility we all feel for the increasing care and time required to deal with our aging parents has little to do with the quality level of our upbringing.
For the most part,I'm very glad I did.New Yorkers--well,okay,one's in NYC,the other in Buffalo--Wendy(Laura Linney,kicking serious A as a flawed and clumsy character)and Jon SAvage(Philip Seymour Hoffman,mostly low-key here,but still invaluable)learn upon their father's misbehavior at an idyllic retirement community in Arizona.
The SavagesBrother and sister Jon and Wendy Savage are drawn together to deal with their ailing father's end-of-life care in a film that could have been seriously depressing.
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney play Brother and Sister, Jon and Wendy Savage.
When, for various reasons, Jon and Wendy's estranged Father loses his home, the Brother and Sister are forced to face the realities of dealing with an ailing parent that they barely know.I think that "The Savages" is a great movie.
How far can you go wrong with great performers like Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and a really black, pointed, funny and incisive script by writer/director Tamara Jenkins.
Jenkins puts some serious thought into her directing and like most (good) films written and directed by the same person, even the smallest of ideas and themes come out of this film.Linney and Hoffman play two middle aged siblings (Wendy and Jon) who had little to no parental influence in their lives, so when they find that their father, who has been on the other side of the country for over twenty years with a woman that wasn't their mother, is suffering from dementia, they must find a new living situation for him.
Tamara Jenkins' breakthrough indie drama-comedy THE SAVAGES, surprisingly captured 2 Oscar nominations back in 2008 , one for the unmistakably excellent Laura Linney and a BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY nomination for herself, so freshly coined as an Oscar nominee and subsequently granted the membership of the academy , allegedly her next project should be on the horizon at any time, nevertheless, as a telling manifest of the shameful situation of female directors in the movie industry, 8 years has passed, we still have no news of Tamara's follow-up to her excellent work, a life-affirming dissection of the worst-case scenario for (almost) every grown-up - how to fulfil our responsibility, when we must become the caretaker of our aging parents during their last days.
More importantly, under the dysfunctional family troupe, the storyline steadily builds a re-connection between the two siblings, from the unspoken competition for grants, the guilt-shifting mind-game, to a tacit feeling when Lenny eventually drops dead peacefully, this is what is happening everyday to ordinary people, no "how could this happen to me!" overcompensating drama or "I can't believe it!" emotional wreck, Jenkins is act of genius in singling out the golden touches out of a real-life scenario, and the unexpectedly rosy ending brings about so much hope using just a little gesture, one single scene, to cogently affirm her talent in theatrics.
Not to be confused with the 2013 Oliver Stone movie "Savages", 2007's "The Savages" stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as brother and sister dealing with their aging father.
The Savages relies on a sweet and sour story, not free from flaws but very touching, and a real sense of sincerity emerges from the movie at every level.The script, shot in a very simple and intimate way, is pretty tough but genuine and anyone can identify with the situation of the characters, played with nuance by an excellent duo, special mention to Philip Seymour Hoffman who is brilliant as always.However, one can deplore the lack of development of Jon and Wendy's characters, because even though they kind of rediscovered each other, ultimately they didn't evolve much throughout the film despite many possibilities to explore.The potential of the movie therefore doesn't seem to have been fully exploited and it's too bad because the end result is already solid..
The film feels carefully nuanced from the glowing opening scene in Sun City where Lenny Savage is in the early phases of dementia to the messy lives of the two siblings, Wendy and Jon, living in different New York City areas, both drowning in a confused if failing theater-drama interest.Laura Linney received a Academy Award-nomination for her turn as Wendy Savage, a woman so in fear of the midlife-crisis-cliché that she feels more in touch with her married boyfriend's dog.
Jon (Hoffman) and his sister Wendy (Linney) are forced to take care of their aging father (Bosco) who has dementia.If you plan on living forever, in good health  of course - and with a lot of money, you don't need to watch this movie and maybe ask yourself a few questions.
The song used in the trailer, The Way We Get By by Spoon (also used in Stranger Than Fiction) also played a part in the deception, making the movie seem more upbeat than it really is.Perhaps we can forgive the producers for coming up with a fun poster and teaser to get people into the theater to face something that they would rather not deal with: caring for a sick parent.The highly educated Savage siblings Wendy (Laura Linney) and Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) must take care of their old father Lenny (Philip Bosco) when he is struck with dementia.
The acting is top-notch all around, but this is mostly told from the point of view of Wendy, which is why The Savages is up for two Oscars this year: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Laura Linney, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen by Tamara Jenkins, who also directed the movie.
THE SAVAGES is one of the most brilliant and well written films that 2007 has seen on the silver screen with performances that are rich in character and so well developed by Tamara Jenkins in the roles played by the immensely talented Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) are malcontent siblings who were abandoned by their mother and abused by their father Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco).
Two of the best actors of this generation, Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, give equally strong performances in this indie film that is perfectly cast, written, and directed that tells the story of two siblings trying to make it through the troubles of their own lives but are then thrust into the situation of having to care for their ailing father.
Not the only truth in the film, however, because the whole notion of life decisions made for another with the consultation of a sibling is fraught with little mine fields, subtly and accurately acted by Laura Linney as Wendy and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Jon. Praise goes again to director Jenkins, who smartly has her actors underplay what could be scenery-chewing parts.Comparisons should be made this year with Away From Her, the Julie Christie vehicle about a lady slipping into Alzheimer's.
The Savages in fact is a very bleak drama about the struggle to set an aging parent to a nursing home and care for him as he suffers Dementia.The Savages was incredible with great performances by Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman.Overall Tamara Jenkins' film is a triumph in so many cinematic areas.
I can't imagine any other actress than Laura Linney for a role like Wendy Savage and the same goes Philip Seymour Hoffman and his part.
Wendy and Jon were deserted by their mother at an early age, left in the care of their abusive father Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco), and both siblings have distanced themselves from their father now living in Sun City, Arizona with his girlfriend of twenty years.