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Tamara Jenkins, The Savages

by Kathryn Durfee
01/16/2008

Writer/director Tamara Jenkins' newest film The Savages was released at the end of November, 2007 but is just now arriving at Athens Ciné. An unlikely Christmas film, The Savages centers on two middle-aged siblings that are put in charge of caring for their declining father.

Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) is a budding playwright in New York City. The word "budding" here of course means that she lives a modest life, works for a temp agency, and takes advantage of the office supplies to send out grant requests. Her brother Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a professor and writer living in Buffalo. One day, Wendy receives a phone call informing her that their elderly father Lenny was found writing on the bathroom wall in his own excrement. He is living in a retirement community with his equally-elderly girlfriend in Sun City, Arizona. However, not too far into the film, she keels over and effectively renders Lenny homeless.

Wendy convinces Jon that they both need to fly out to Arizona to see their father. Upon their arrival, they both realize that he is too much for either of them to handle alone. Thus, they decide to put him in a nursing home in Buffalo. Lenny clearly doesn't have much time left, so Wendy stays with Jon, and they learn to be siblings again.

It is unclear exactly what sort of childhood they had with Lenny, but it does not appear to have been a good one. In fact, it seems to have deeply affected their abilities to maintain stable relationships of their own. Wendy is having an affair with a married man about whom she does not seem to care. Likewise, Jon is living with his Polish girlfriend of three years, a woman he refuses to marry even though this results in her deportation. He weeps over his breakfast, but is it out of the sadness of seeing her go or the shame of his own inability to heal his emotional scars?

While Wendy and Jon grow and cope with the realization that they are middle-aged and must learn to take better care of themselves despite the lingering impact made by their father, Lenny remains a consistent curmudgeon throughout the film. This is an interesting and noteworthy choice by Jenkins. Whereas most family films make an attempt at some sort of reconciliation between estranged relatives, The Savages is a more honest portrayal. Lenny is a crotchety old man at the beginning, and he remains that way through the entire film. He is foul-mouthed, bitter, and constantly irritated. Any departure from this state is a result not of being surrounded by family but of the illness slowly taking control of his body.

The Savages is a quiet film built on the nuance of performance rather than showy special effects. Linney and Hoffman both give nearly-flawless performances. Jenkins had both actors in mind while writing the script, and she should now add "casting director" to her credits. These two actors (having never worked together before) exhibit such an amazing chemistry that it is almost impossible to see them as actors or plot devices. It is hard to believe that this Hoffman is the same person appearing in two other features this season, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and Charlie Wilson's War. The scene in which Jon is tied up in a sling in order to repair a muscle strained during a game of tennis between the siblings is particularly effective in communicating their relationship. In this one scene, they laugh, they cry, and they try to prove their worth as writers and people to each other.

Looking back on this review, The Savages does not appear to be your typical Christmas movie. However, the film is an honest look at the darker side of family loyalty. No matter how horrible a childhood was, children should be there for their parents in the end. Having lived through a similar situation at the ripe old age of 19 (aside from the bad parent-child relationship part), I found Jenkins' story to be a well-crafted tale of a child's reluctance to say goodbye and a parent's realization that it is time to go. The Savages is a smart, well-written drama and an honest look at what makes us who we are.

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