Movie Review - 'The Savages'

The Savages

Starring Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Philip Bosco
Directed by Tamara Jenkins
Rated R

Two films this year looked straight down the tunnel of dimming light, squarely addressing dementia.

One film, Away from Her, features a sure-to-be Oscar nominated performance by Julie Christie, whose mind goes even when she looks healthy and lively. There's a tremendous amount of sadness in the film, astutely directed by Sarah Polley.

Tamara Jenkins has written and directed the other film that gains so much strength from dementia, the more biting and cynical, The Savages.

Sure, it's appropriately named, and that's by design. It's a bit of a misnomer to say that this is a film "about mental illness," because even though that appears to take center stage, this is really about letting go, forgiveness, and maturation.

Wendy and Jon Savage (Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman) live hours apart in New York but haven't come together in some time when they learn that their father (Philip Bosco) is in need of an assisted living facility. They arrive in Arizona, take their father back home, and begin the quest to find him a comfortable place to live out his remaining days.

Through this process, brother and sister become close again, finding out what amazes them about each other and what drives them absolutely insane about each other, as well. Many of the scenes are incredibly revealing, for both the writer and director and the actors and characters. But other scenes feel rudimentary, like the early stages of an obstacle course: Yes, everyone can do the monkey bars by now, but it's tradition.

The Savages feels closer to those scenes that keep you fascinated, but there simply aren't enough of them to distance the film from its indie-flick-being-an-indie-flick pitfalls. We've seen too many of these things before.

There are three fantastic performances here, though, so I can recommend The Savages primarily on that basis.