Illness in old age can be difficult for families to deal with - a world filled with the misery of nursing homes and the burdens that parents can unwittingly inflict on their children. This is the world where writer-director Tamara Jenkins looks for humor in The Savages.""
The film follows Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) Savage, a brother and sister forced back into contact when their estranged father becomes unable to care for himself after a stroke. Forced to relocate their father to a nursing home in Buffalo, the siblings scramble to understand how to care for a man that abused and neglected them as children.
Driven by high-caliber performances by both Hoffman and Linney, the film structures itself around moments where the audience can feel both the absurd humor and the utter misery in caring for a senile parent. Linney especially delivers as a would-be playwright who wears her emotions on her sleeves. When Linney's father drops his pants in front of her before getting to an airplane restroom, Linney's reaction encompasses her character's complexity, evoking embarrassment and anxiety, alongside a guilty chuckle.
Meanwhile, the profound sadness of her father, Lenny (played by Philip Bosco), provides a window to the quiet suffering a debilitated parent endures. He sees the pain he has inflicted on his children in his illness and as a substandard father, and regrets it silently throughout the film, especially when his children ask him awkwardly about burial plans and bicker like stubborn children without a father to keep peace.
Hoffman is as spectacular as ever, perfectly delivering the condescension of a successful older brother. For him, his father is a distraction from an already frenzied life, and he makes it clear with frequent cell phone calls and constant schedule juggling. He dictates the harsh realities of the situation to his kinder-hearted sister without remorse, an emotionally repressed fasade that is torn down later when his personal conflict becomes too much to bear.
These very real and compelling characters are tossed into a cold and harsh world of elder-care that is delivered to the screen with frightening detail. Outside, the nursing home is framed only in gray by day and black by night, bordered by snow banks on all sides. Its interiors are painted in dim pastels and whites, the only brightness derived from sickly fluorescent lights, store-bought cutouts of turkeys and Santa Clauses stapled haphazardly to the walls.
""The Savages"" pulls no punches and doesn't try to make the situation cute or endearing - this is a film about real characters dealing with ugly problems. But in the end, the overdose of reality coupled with rare, light-hearted moments fueled by some sibling absurdity pushes the audience to see at least a little joy in this depressing and bleak world. A showcase of acting talent, ""The Savages"" is one of the finest films this season.
