“The Savages” is a quietly funny and poignant film about family and the centrifugal and centripetal forces that act on each of us. Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) are a brother and sister forced to deal with their elderly father (Philip Bosco). Dear old dad lives with his girlfriend Doris in Arizona. Jon and Wendy, out of a sense of duty rather than affection, offer to move Dad to upstate New York, a maneuver that is facilitated by Doris’s unexpected death.
Dad is a true curmudgeon--not a sell-out heart-of-gold curmudgeon, but the real deal. He is frequently profane and constantly irritated by Jon, Wendy, and life. We develop the sense that this is not merely a deterioration in what was once a sunny disposition. Dad must have been unpleasant when Jon and Wendy were kids. This in turn helps us to appreciate Jon’s and Wendy’s own emotional maldevelopment. Wendy is having an affair with a married man. Jon is involved with a Polish woman who is at risk for deportation if he refuses to marry her. So far, he refuses. Jon's and Wendy's honest affection for each other arises from their father's emotional distance, if not abuse.
When the search for a nursing home is accomplished, it is heartening to see that the patients and the caregivers escape the stereotypical wise cracking old man and the bossy nurse. Instead, each minor character appears as genuine, nuanced, and three-dimensional as the main players.
Hoffman’s performance burnishes his stature as once of this generation’s greatest actors. In “The Savages” he shows yet another distinctly different persona, complimenting his previous diverse roles in “Capote,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” and so many other films. Laura Linney also gives a bravura performance that definitely earned her the Oscar nomination she received.
“The Savages” is a story driven by character rather than plot, a loving yet critical look at people who are flawed but redeemable, and it makes us feel redeemable as well.
