A pair of siblings is forced to set aside their discomfort with one
another for the sake of their father in this low-key comedy-drama from writer
and director Tamara Jenkins. Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) is a struggling
playwright living in New York City who works a day job to support herself and
can't shake the feeling that she's failed as an artist. Wendy isn't especially
happy about her love life either, gaining little self-esteem from her on-and-off
relationship with oversexed neighbor Larry (Peter Friedman). Wendy's anxieties
about her writing career are intensified by the success of her brother Jon
(Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who teaches theater history at a college in Buffalo,
New York and has published a number of books. While Jon's life seems fine on the
surface, a case of writers' block has stalled work on his latest project, and
he's deeply upset that his girlfriend is soon to leave the United States to
return to her native Poland. Wendy and Jon don't get along and prefer not to see
one another, but an unfortunate circumstance brings them together -- their
father Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco). Elderly Lenny has began showing signs of
dementia, and when he begins smearing his feces on the walls of his Arizona
home, his girlfriend announces she's through with him, shortly before she
suddenly dies. Wendy and Jon have little choice but to fly to Arizona and see
what can be done for Lenny, but their long-simmering animosity makes it hard for
them to deal with the realities of Lenny's condition. The Savages received its
world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie
Guide
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