Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

sheyenne Jon and Wendy Savage are brother and sister children of no good parents. Their mother left them young and is "out of the picture". Their father brutal and abusive. Nonetheless, the siblings grew up as normal as middle-class Americans with middle-age types of woes. Time came when they have to take care of their aging dad. Despite how they were treated before, Wendy is compelled with providing her dad the with utmost care. Jon, on the other hand, is the level-headed, has a matter-of-fact way of dealing with life. I love how the melodrama is stripped out of it. Seeing him teary-eyed as he watches the rehearsal of the play that his sister had written about the pain they experienced, was very heartfelt. But they triumphed over the hurt and that's admirable.

Chris Smith (RockPortReview) Not to be confused with the 2013 Oliver Stone movie "Savages", 2007's "The Savages" stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as brother and sister dealing with their aging father. The story is all too familiar to some as the baby boomers continue to age it's up to their children to care for them. The film is written and directed by Tamara Jenkins in a very honest and sincere way that will resonate with many people.We start out in the warm and sunny senior utopia of Sun City, Arizona. Lenny Savage, played by Philip Bosco, is the elderly antagonist in a story that starts out with a "bathroom incident". Not to long after that his girlfriend of many years literally drops dead. Since he was living with her and her kids can't stand him he is kicked out to fend for himself. His daughter Wendy Savage lives and works in New York City as a struggling author and playwright who is having an affair with an older, balding, and more importantly married man. Her older brother John Savage lives in Buffalo, he writes, teaches, and has PhD in philosophy. Both sibling are single and muddled in mid life crisis territory when they receive a call to come and do something about there estranged father. Lenny was a terrible father and their mother left the family when they were little, so it is quite amazing to see how relatively normal Wendy and John turned out. They meet at Wendy's place, then board a plane to Sun City.Lenny has dementia and is pretty dependent on others so they make the big decision most people dread. They have to choose a nursing home were they prey on peoples guilt. Wendy asks John "Are we horrible people?" They each deal with things in their own way. Wendy feels enormous guilt, while John can only think of what his father did to him as a child. Can he forgive the abuse? Are they doing the right thing? "The Savages" is also darkly comedic. The indignities of getting old and the many awkward moments that ensue. While bringing Lenny back to New York, they have quite the embarrassing moment on the plane. Later on at a coffee shop they have a very tough and awkward conversation about what to do with him when he eventually dies. The film is a rare and realistic approach to death and how it affects the living. It forces Wendy and John to get together and work out there problems which eventually brings them closer together. Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance earned him the Award for Best Male Lead at the Spirit Awards, while Laura Linney nabbed a Oscar Nom for best supporting actor. Tamara Jenkins also got a nod for best screenplay.

punishmentpark And 'The Savages' does instigate unrest to a certain extent. I had intended to watch a horror film or a comedy after this one, but the film is like a heavy meal that will need its time to digest. There is an awful lot going on in this seemingly subdued film.It is a poignant portrait of the family Savage, filled to the brim with dark humor and often painful, but (or: and) deeply human matter. Hoffman and Linley may steal the show, but the screen time that Bosco gets, he takes with both hands. For instance: the moment where he takes the hearing aid out of his ear and pulls the hood over his head while son and daughter continue to argue is, despite the fact one knows he wasn't a good father (he in turn wasn't treated well as a child, either), beautiful, for the lack of a better word.But it isn't all gloom and doom as we witness brother and sister take careful, cautious steps towards a more positive future. On top of all this, 'The Savages' is very aptly filmed.9 out of 10.

jm10701 What a disappointment this movie is. Nothing about it is believable. None of the angst the characters are supposed to be experiencing rings true at all, nor does their sudden concern for their father's welfare after a lifetime of abuse and estrangement. The only thing that is at all believable is the bickering between the two siblings, and that does not make for a meaningful or entertaining movie-watching experience.I come from a dysfunctional family myself, also with dying or recently dead parents, and I resent the cavalier way Tamara Jenkins turns the situation into a cheesy soap opera with a happy ending. There can be no happy endings in families like that. The Savages is cheap (and I don't mean low-budget), pretentious, and annoying.