The Savages
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Actor: Laura Linney, Phillip Seymour-HoffmanBrand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 114 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-22
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
DVD Reviews of The Savages
DVD Review: Savages
Summary: 3 Stars
Movie was depressing at parts but shows you what different families go through especially when caring for the elderly.DVD Review: Undeveloped, but funny
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Savages" works as a comedy, but not as a drama. It's the story of two siblings, played by Phillip Seymour-Hoffman and Laura Linney, who deal with the sickness of the father they didn't get along with as children. It's a funny ride as three difficult personalities deal with each other and a difficult experience. Hoffman has great moments, even if his performance is a bit one-dimensional and fake--he plays the intellectual, lazy slob he plays in every movie. Linney is also very good technically, but her character is very annoying and unlikeable. The drama moves along well, it's easy to follow (if a bit odd and disturbing at point) and has enough surprise along the way. There's no magic, though, in the script or the acting, no emotional depth, even though I feel like everyone involved wants there to be. The problem is the filmmakers focused on making this a workable comedy--which it is--and didn't focus on making it a workable drama--which it is, almost. The whole thing came across as unfinished, the stabs at true emotion insincere. And maybe that's the point. But it wasn't a great moviegoing experience, only good. It wasn't exactly a waste of my time, it's just not something I need to repeat.DVD Review: Aren't We All 'Savages'?
Summary: 4 Stars
Writer/director Tamara Jenkins' "The Savages" is one of those rare coming-of-age films that avoids cliches and comes across wholly genuine. Jenkins understands that coming-of-age is not only for the young, bringing out in her characters what the average filmmaker would easily miss. Her directing skill is also profoundly exquisite - she does not merely capture her Oscar-nominated screenplay on celluloid but makes it transcend the screen. No High Definition necessary.
Jon and Wendy Savage, portrayed by the aptly-celebrated Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney, are a brother and sister whose vast emotional distance is mirrored by their respective residences in Buffalo, N.Y. and Manhattan. This comfortable disparity is severed, however, when their equally distant father Leonard, played by Philip Bosco, succumbs to dementia brought on by Parkinson's disease soon after his long-time girlfriend passes away. Floating in and out of consciousness, he is no longer able to fend for himself, forcing his children to undertake the difficult task of transporting him from sunny Arizona to frigid Buffalo where they can more optimally watch over him in a private nursing home.
The premise is hardly light, but Jenkins finds humor in the seemingly mundane. Jon is a philosophy professor consistently teaching new ways to open the mind yet could not be more closed-off to any viewpoints other than his own. Wendy divides her time between writing her "subversive, semi-autobiographical" stage play and romping with her neighbor in spite of his being married mostly because she is fond of his dog. Meanwhile, facing the fact that they must care for their father - a father who never truly took care of them - becomes more cumbersome for the duo than they care to admit.
In her third Oscar-nominated performance Linney is fantastic as usual, fully capturing the difficult transition that Wendy has to make not only where her father is concerned but in how she must rescue herself from artistic and personal stagnation. Hoffman also impresses as the more cynical of the duo, wrapped up in collegiate pretense and personal demons. Bosco may have the most work cut out for him, however. Perfectly bringing to light the capricious consciousness that accompanies dementia, he clinches Jenkins' poignant script.
The icicles of New York State reach out and grab the listener as fully as the palm fronds and summer breezes of Arizona with Jenkins behind the lens. A screenwriter with her astute directing skill is a rare commodity, especially in today's fickle industry. The subject matter may run the risk of becoming dour or cloying, but she never allows it to fall into those traps. Interjecting her grave, gripping premise with subtle, wry humor, she makes "The Savages" a true pleasure.
DVD Review: Two great actors in an American classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I love these two actors, anyway, and this movie would be much duller without them. The subject matter is one which is pretty real to a lot of adults now: dealing with a fragile elder parent, and all the emotions that brings up. There's humor in it, and pathos. I loved it.DVD Review: Exquisitely nuanced
Summary: 5 Stars
I put off seeing this for quite a while because I wasn't in the mood for a depressing film about dementia and death. I needn't have -- it's a wonderful film and enjoyable despite the subject matter. The writing and acting are uniformly exquisite; the film is funny without being overtly humorous and moving without being sentimental. The story develops via an episodic, almost poetic structure in which the characters' dysfunctionality and humanity is illustrated not so much through narrative as through beautifully realized individual moments. Many films have a few very subtle and well-realized scenes; this film is so laden with such moments there is scarcely room or necessity for plot development. And though I already admired Phillip Seymour Hoffman, this role certainly made me a confirmed fan.
Description of The Savages
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 father (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 father, 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 |  More from Philip Seymour Hoffman |  More Comedies from Fox |
Stills from The Savages
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Academy Award winner? Philip Seymour Hoffman and Academy Award? nominee Laura Linney deliver unforgettable performances in this hilarious coming-of-middle age story from Oscar? -nominated writer / director Tamara Jenkins. Until recently all John and Wendy Savage (Hoffman Linney) had in common was a lousy childhood and a few strands of DNA. But after years of drifting apart they're forced to band together to care for the elderly cantankerous father who made their formative years "challenging." In the process both of these aimless perpetually adolescent fortysomethings may just at long last have to grow up!System Requirements:Running Time: 113 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/COMING OF AGE Rating: R UPC: 024543506799 Manufacturer No: 2250679
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