Product Description
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The last thing the two Savage siblings ever wanted to do
was look back on their undeniably dysfunctional family legacy.
Wendy (Academy Award nominee Laura Linney) is a self medicating
struggling East Village playwright, AKA a temp who spends her
days applying for grants and stealing office supplies, dating her
very married neighbor. Jon (Academy Award winner Philip Seymour
Hoffman) is an obsessive compulsive college professor writing
obscure books on even more obscure subjects in Buffalo who still
can't commit to his girlfriend after four years even though her
cooking brings him tears of joy. Then, out of the blue, comes the
call that changes everything - the call that informs them that
the her they have long feared and avoided, Lenny Savage (Tony
Award winner Philip Bosco), has lost his marbles. And there is no
one to help him but his kids. Now, as they put the middle of
their already arrested lives on hold, Wendy and Jon are forced to
live together under one roof for the first time since childhood,
soon rediscovering the eccentricities that drove each other
crazy. Faced with complete upheaval and the ultimate sibling
rivalry battle over how to handle their her's final days, they
are forced to face the past and finally start to realize what
adulthood, family and, most surprisingly, each other are really
about.
.com
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It's almost impossible to describe The Savages in a way
that makes it sound as richly engaging and enjoyable as it is.
The story sounds bleak: Two unhappy siblings--Wendy (Laura
Linney, You Can Count on Me) and Jon Savage (Philip Seymour
Hoffman, Capote)--are forced to grapple with their dying her
(Philip Bosco, Damages) as he slips into dementia. But this spare
outline doesn't capture the wealth of human detail that the
script and performances contain. Linney and Hoffman vividly
portray the sort of cluttered, precarious relationship that
brothers and sisters can have, thick with past grievances but
also unspoken affections and connections that can't even be
articulated. As Wendy and Jon struggle to make some kind of peace
with their difficult her, watching these wonderfully
understated yet compelling actors is a pleasure unto itself. But
the script and direction deserve these actors; filmmaker Tamara
Jenkins (Slums of Beverly Hills) finds honest emotion and sly,
sideways humor in the starkness of mortality. She doesn't force
any easy epiphanies on her story, but lets the characters find
solace through their own clumsy efforts. Anyone who appreciates
the messiness of humanity--the territory that Hollywood movies
seem to have surrendered to smart indie films like The Squid and
the Whale, Little Children, or The Good Girl--will find The
Savages a smart, genuine, and empathic portrait of life. --Bret
Fetzer
Beyond The Savages
More from Laura Linney ( /b/ref=amb_link_461?ie=UTF8&node=433690
)
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)
Stills from The Savages