Beautiful family drama
Two siblings band together to take care of the ailing father who ruined their lives
The Savages is not your average feel-good family movie. It is a beautifully written and well directed tragicomedy, telling the story of two siblings who band together to take care of their ailing father. It deals with the serious matter of death and the painful subject of family wounds that never heal.
Yet filmmaker Tamara Jenkins brings glimmers of hope to such heavy subjects and even manages to come up with an alternative happy ending, suggesting that life, while not being a Disney movie, goes on in its own spirited manner.
It is a conclusion that will bring a smile to your face and then a tear to your eye.
The two siblings, abandoned by their mother and mistreated by their father during their childhood, are played by two brilliant actors who are in top form: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney.
Hoffman plays Jon, a cynical theatre professor who apparently sees his father as a nuisance but will shed a few tears when his Polish girlfriend - whom he refuses to marry - cooks eggs for him in the morning.
Linney plays his kid sister Wendy, a down-and-out aspiring playwright who manages to earn a living by landing temporary jobs while having a joyless affair with her married neighbour.
The siblings, who are seldom in touch with each other, unite for the first time since childhood when they are told their father Lenny (Philip Bosco), an irritable and hostile old man, who writes on the wall with his faeces after he is ordered to flush the toilet. It is a symptom of dementia, Wendy and Jon are told, and the old man is going to die, soon.
The siblings decide to move their estranged dad, who embodies the buried past and epitomises everything that they want to get away from, to a nursing home where they can visit daily. So here's the crux of the drama: can Jon and Wendy reconcile with their past and as a result be capable of coming to terms with the present, which is a life without dreams? Can they finally get themselves together to love someone even though there was little love in their upbringing?
Hoffman is perhaps one of the most talented big screen performers today. He moulds his body and voice to fit his cynical yet sentimental role as naturally as a chameleon changes colour. Anyone who has ever felt guilty and helpless when faced with a death in their family will relate to Linney's darkly funny and deeply poignant performance.
The Savages is, in the words of Jenkins, 'seeing humour in the underbelly of tragedy'. Its frankness and humour, when addressing the fears everyone has, makes it one of the greatest comedies of the year.
The Savages opens on April 24
