The Savages [2007]

American Indie director Tamara Jenkin’s first movie in 7 years, The Savages is based on a deceptively simple and a seemingly drab premise – a pair of siblings coming together to take care of their aged father suffering from dementia. But with two of America’s most respected actors playing the emotionally fragile siblings – Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney, things can never really go wrong. Hoffman’s intellectual ‘brother’ and Linney’s ‘sister’ who aspires to reach the same pedestal, have brought to screen a ravaging relationship, seethed in jealousy, insecurity and a bagful of personal issues trying to burst through manicured seams. And when they finally let their guards down and start speaking their minds, you know the proverbial shit has truly hit the walls, err fan (watch the movie, and you’ll get the pun). The script, which is compassionate and disturbing in equal measures, lent an extra spark to the compelling performances. Even though the first half of the movie is filled with some eye-candy montages (the saturated colours and locales deliberately made to look like movie sets are reminiscent of similar sequences in The Notorious Bettie Page), the tale of human mortality, broken relationships and fractured dreams is anything but a date movie.





Director: Tamara Jenkins
Genre: Drama/Family Drama
Language: English
Country: US