Sunday, December 30, 2007
A+E, Movies, Reviews

Can’t help but like ‘The Savages’

A lot of baby boomers are thinking about warehousing aging parents, or being warehoused themselves, so it’s surprising we haven’t seen more movies like “The Savages.”

A lot of baby boomers are thinking about warehousing aging parents, or being warehoused themselves, so it’s surprising we haven’t seen more movies like “The Savages.”

It’s not a pleasant topic to think about, let alone be immersed in for two hours, even when frequently leavened with humor—as it is in “The Savages.”
Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco) lives in Sun City, Ariz., with his companion of 20 years. She dies, leaving him homeless and rapidly being consumed by dementia. His adult children, Wendy (Laura Linney) and Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) have to figure out how to care for him.

The siblings, who were abused by their father and abandoned by their mother, must have been very dependent on each other in their youth; but they’ve become estranged as adults, despite a mutual interest in theatre—he teaches it, she tries to write for it.

Jon lives a hermit’s existence in Buffalo, whileWendy lives alone in Manhattan. They get Lenny into a rehabilitation center in Buffalo and Wendy temporarily moves in with Jon. Writer-director Tamara Jenkins (“The Slums of Beverly Hills”) milks their unfunny situation for all the comedy she can find.

Hoffman is brilliant. Linney, while certainly not bad, seems to be acting a little too much, as if she’s tired of being overlooked for coming across as too natural. Bosco could win an award for Best Performance by a Vegetable. Though helpless, his Lenny is still full of the rage he used to direct toward his children.

You gotta love “The Savages,” but, Wendy, an expert on self-medicating, would surely recommend you take an antidepressant before seeing it. THREE STARS—Steve Warren