An Uncomfortable Reality

The Savages is a good movie. I won't go so far as to say it is a great movie, but it touches on all the hallmarks of a quality dramatic film: tension, relationships, uncertainty, relatability, redemption, and closure. I can understand why there was considerable buzz around this movie when it came out. Tamara Jenkin's movie deals with an all too common reality here in the United States, what a family is to do with a loved one as they pass beyond the point of being able to care for themselves.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Laura Linney play a convincing brother and sister pair that have to figure out what to do with their father, Lenny. Although not exactly stated in the movie, the viewer is correct to assume that Lenny was an abusive father. There are frequent references to this throughout the film. Despite this strike against Lenny, his character is still highly sympathetic. The movie is difficult to watch sometimes because of Lenny's inability to cope with situations as well as the multiple indignities he suffers. Speaking of Lenny, the actor who plays him, Philip Bosco, did a very convincing job. He manages to slip in and out of lucidity in a very natural manner.

I could have used a little more background information on the family dynamic as a whole, specifically how their mother fit into the equation. Did she die young? Did she run away? Was she even more abusive than Lenny? The two kids hadn't spoken with their father in a long time when all of the action of the film starts occurring, but we aren't given much of a window into what the characters were like before their current time. I get that the kids are neurotic, and intelligent, but ultimately a little messed up, but it doesn't feel entirely organic, or justified. Perhaps that is my own biases coming into play.

I think that my favorite character in the movie may have ended up being the attendant Jimmy at the nursing home, played by Gbenga Akinnagbe. Jimmy is one of the few characters developed in the movie that seems relatively normal. He is audience to the final moments of the Savage family, and there isn't much he can do to avoid that, but he takes it in stride.

The movie was a pretty realistic, at least I think, portrayal of our nursing home culture. The movie moves slowly at times, but so does life. As if to accentuate that slowness, the movie makes ample use of dramatic pauses, awkward situations, and emotion to bring you in. I don't know if I would watch the movie again by choice. I'm not sure I would turn the channel if it came on tv, but at times it seemed just a little too real.

8/10, glad I watched it, but may not see again.