We've seen a lot of the dysfunctional family in recent cinematic history. Cult classics like The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and indie hits à la Little Miss Sunshine (2006) have made the theme an increasingly popular choice for movie scribes to tackle. Yet The Savages, written and directed by Tamara Jenkins, offers a fresh perspective on broken familial bonds and the process that goes into healing them.
Laura Linney, whose Oscar nomination for Best Actress is well-deserved, plays Wendy Savage, a lonely, neurotic 39-year-old aspiring playwright masking as a temp to pay bills. She's having an affair. She loves animals. She's a compulsive liar.
You've probably seen this character before, especially in smaller, lesser-known films like this one. While it would have been easy to deliver a generic character sketch, Linney brings her A-game in a nuanced, natural performance. She takes the single-woman-in-a-mid-life-crisis to a higher level, seamlessly weaving together melancholy, anxiety and awkward tension -- no easy task. There are a few predictable scenes in the film, but the most memorable feature Wendy.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is Wendy's older brother Jon, a fascinating and amusing character in his own right. He's a college philosophy professor struggling with both a turbulent relationship and a novel about famed German writer and theater director Bertolt Brecht. Hoffman displays his usual abrasive, dark self to portray Jon -- and, as we all know, "the usual" is always worth coming back for. Jon and Wendy are perfect in their imperfection, just as Linney and Hoffman are remarkable in their abilities to play off of each other's strong suits. While Hoffman is strong in his commitment to playing Jon, he's still just a bit overshadowed by the powerhouse performance Linney brought to the table.
The plot of the film actually revolves around a third notable character: Savage patriarch Lenny (Philip Bosco). The movie's onset resembles a row of cascading dominoes: After his senile girlfriend dies of a heart attack, Lenny is left homeless and begins showing signs that he's not so right in the head himself. This prompts the Savage siblings to drop everything and fly out to the lovely retirement community of Sun City, Ariz. in order to bring him back to a nursing home in upstate New York, where Jon teaches. In the weeks that follow, Lenny's mind slowly begins to deteriorate and a trifecta of heavy issues starts to converge: As brother and sister forge a second, grown-up relationship, they begin dwelling on the terrible events of the childhood that shaped their lives and search inside themselves for painful answers. While the material is possibly cliché, the execution is anything but.
The Savages is a dysfunctional family dramedy that thrives without the need of a crazy uncle or depressed cousin. It's an intense tale where love is not found, but instead buried and rightly forgotten. Most of all, it's believable and down-to-earth.
Even though the film has actually been out for a few months with limited release, it's new to Charlottesville (check the Regal Downtown) and shouldn't be ignored. As a true movie fan, I'd heard of The Savages and its rave reviews. I entered the theater with high expectations and didn't leave disappointed; it's a refreshing story from start to poignant finish. It will be interesting to see how Linney does by the time the Oscars roll around. She should receive stiff competition from Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) and Julie Christie (Away From Her), but hers is a savage performance that garners attention.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
