The Savages (film)
| The Savages | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Tamara Jenkins |
| Produced by |
Ted Hope Anne Carey Erica Westheimer |
| Written by | Tamara Jenkins |
| Starring |
Laura Linney Philip Seymour Hoffman Philip Bosco |
| Music by | Stephen Trask |
| Cinematography | Mott Hupfel |
| Edited by | Brian A. Kates |
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Production
company |
This is that
Ad Hominem Enterprises |
| Distributed by | Fox Searchlight |
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Release date
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Running time
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113 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $9 million |
| Box office | $9,610,042 |
The Savages is a 2007 American drama film written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. It stars Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Alexander Payne and Jenkins' husband Jim Taylor were two of the executive producers. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim.
After drifting apart emotionally over the years, two single siblings — Wendy (Linney) and Jon (Hoffman) — band together to care for their estranged, elderly father, Lenny (Philip Bosco), who is rapidly slipping into dementia. Wendy and Jon first travel to Sun City, Arizona to attend the funeral of their father's girlfriend of 20 years. When they arrive, they are told that their father signed a non-marriage agreement and will not have rights to any of her property. They then move him to a nursing home in Buffalo, where Jon is a theater professor working on a book about Bertolt Brecht. Wendy, who is an aspiring, but unsuccessful, playwright, moves from New York City to help establish their father in Buffalo.
Neither of the siblings are close with Lenny. It is implied that he was a physically and emotionally abusive father when Jon and Wendy were growing up and they cut him out of their lives. They were also abandoned by their mother at a young age. Their dysfunctional family life appears to have left Wendy and Jon emotionally crippled and unable to sustain a relationship. She is sleeping with an unattainable married man 13 years her senior and he cannot commit to a Polish woman who must return to Kraków after her visa expires.
Their visits to the nursing home and their father's eventual death allow them to reevaluate their lives and to grow emotionally. In the end, Wendy has broken up with her married lover, but has adopted his dog, which he had planned to put down. She is also seen working on the production of her play about their terrible childhood, while Jon is leaving for a conference in Poland where it is suggested he may reconnect with the woman he had let go. The film closes with Wendy running with her lover's dog alive, running with the aid of a wheeled hip cast, suggesting a mode of flawed yet persevering life for both siblings.
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