The Savages
Following on from Tamara Jenkins’ ascerbic directorial debut Slums of Beverly Hills, The Savages takes the theme of the dysfunctional family and applies it to the older generation.
Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as Jon Savage, a shabby academic who spends his days agonising over a book on Berthold Brecht that he is writing. His neurotic younger sister Wendy, played by Laura Linney, is an aspiring but unsuccessful New York playwright who makes ends meet by temping. They are not particularly close, but enjoy banter about Sam Shepherd and the theatre of the absurd, none of which comes in very useful when they receive a call about their ailing father who has started plastering the walls with his own excrement.
With particular reluctance on Jon’s part, the siblings catch a flight to Sun City, Arizona, where their dad, Lenny, is living in a retirement community. When his pensioner girlfriend suddenly passes away, Wendy and Jon decide to move their father to a care home in Buffalo, so that they can more easily look after him.
Tamara Jenkins doesn’t sentimentalise the Savage’s circumstances: Lenny Savage is cantankerous, foul-mouthed and short tempered, and the film hints at mental and physical abuse towards his children when they were growing up. Whatever the history (it is never outlined in detail), it has left Wendy and Jon unable to form meaningful relationships of their own. Wendy is trapped in an unfulfilling affair with a married man 17 years her senior, whilst Jon refuses to marry his Polish girlfriend, and conveniently ends the relationship when her Visa expires. He’d dearly like to commit to her, but somehow can’t.
The trawl through nursing homes is nothing short of depressing. Even from the more exclusive ones promising mountain views and perpetual joviality the path to the grave seems a very short one. “What are your father’s funeral arrangements?” asks one proprietor by way of greeting. As it happens “assisted living” is rather beyond the budget of a lecturer and a temp - Lenny’s girlfriend left him no inheritance - so they settle for a local home where the nurses are overworked and the patients are treated like naughty children. One Nigerian nurse stands out - he knows what the Savage siblings are going through and comforts them with wisdom borne out of experience.
In spite of the grim subject matter, rarely examined in mainstream American cinema, a razor-sharp, bitingly funny script and nuanced performances from the two leads make The Savages an absolute joy to watch from start to finish. Linney and Hoffman’s characters are remarkably well-observed, played with a natural tenderness that doesn’t beg our sympathy, but wins it nonetheless. Their constant bickering belies the enduring intimacy between brother and sister. As they take responsibility for the care of their father, they are forced to re-evaluate their own lives and face up to some painful memories which they have kept buried for years.
