Tamara Jenkins: The Savages (2007)

[Chris Knipp]

TAMARA JENKINS: THE SAVAGES (2007)

Family reunion

Review by Chris Knipp

If you remember Jenkins' 1998 Slums of Beverly Hills, you'll know that her family portraits are catalogs of dysfunction. This time she looks at how a family deals with decline and death. If that puts you off, read no further. This isn't a fun watch. But it's honest, observant, smart, and it has an ending so satisfying it makes all the bad times and harshness seem worthwhile.

The title is a play on words, underscored by making "the" tiny in the publicity. The principals in this movie start out seriously compromised in the areas of kindness and civility, never more so than with each other. And if you call them "the Savages" that's ironic, because they're anything but a family. Wendy (Laury Linney) and Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are squabbling siblings who get stuck with helping out their demented dad Lennie (Philip Bosco), who was mean to them when they were kids, and whom they haven't even seen for years. Their mom altogether disappeared when they were still very young. Lennie's living out in Arizona somewhere, in a land of sun-bleached emptiness and cactus-adorned modern dwellings and overweight women. He starts behaving peculiarly, and his longtime girlfriend dies. Jon and Wendy are forced to get together and go to Arizona, where they learn that legally the girlfriend's family owes Lennie nothing, and they're already selling the house.

Wendy has to stay and watch Lennie, who's been hospitalized and is detected to have signs of full-on Parkinson's disease and accompanying dementia, while Jon goes back to Buffalo and looks around for a nursing home. He's a college teacher specializing in that uncompromising feel-bad dramatist, Bertolt Brecht. He's got to finish a book on Brecht he's been working on too long, and though he seems to have his feet on the ground, he does not appear to be a happy fellow. He cannot commit to his Polish girlfriend so she is going to have to return to Warsaw. Wendy is theatrical in her inclinations too, but her status is more ephemeral. She survives on temp jobs while penning unproduced plays and applying for grants she never receives, consoling herself with a married boyfriend named Larry (Peter Friedman). Her cat and Larry's dog figure prominently in the plot, and so does her ficus, which does badly in her absence. She seems inordinately fond of prescription drugs, and shamelessly steals some from the medicine cabinet of Lennie's deceased girlfriend. Painkillers, SSRI's, Xanax--she likes them all. We don't know much about what it was like for Wendy and Jon growing up, but since we see Lennie yell at them the minute he sees them, we can guess. It's no wonder they're essentially still getting started in middle age.

Jenkins works within a narrow palette but her observations are acute. She's interested not just in the family details, the tough decisions about nursing care, interment plans, the pull between convenience and guilt, or about how all this stuff forces Wendy and Philip to cooperate with each other and ultimately grow closer as well as find love in their hearts for their father. She also observes the culture of aging, the senior centers where 70- or 80-somethings in uniform do cheer-leading stunts, or sing in restaurants, or delude themselves with hopes of happiness and green grass forever. She shows the "class" levels of retirement homes and above all she looks at the range of meannesses and kindnesses among "health care professionals" and "caregivers." Wendy even starts flirting with a particularly nice male nurse, Jimmy (Gbenga Akinnagbe). Jenkins' attention to detail comes in the way Wendy mistakes him for Jamaican (he, and the actor, are Nigerian-born). He talks to her, and reads her play, and likes it.

The world of The Savages isn't fun, but it's funny, while remaining absolutely free of any visible reaching for laughs or other effect. If anyone's being manipulated the strings don't show. Linney, Hoffman, and Bosco see to that. But thanks to the keen observation of Tamara Jenkins, this is a lot more than an acting fest. It's one of the most keenly observed American films of the year.

[mouton]

Beautiful review, Chris. You can tell that this one truly stuck with you afterward. I think we have very similar feelings on the film but mine are just worded differently, and, at the risk of humbling myself, not as well as yours.


THE SAVAGES
Written and Directed by Tamara Jenkins

John Savage: Your life is much more portable than mine.
Wendy Savage: What does that mean? Like a toilet? Like a port-o-potty?

What better time of year to talk about family? The holidays bring families together. Differences are put aside; memories are shared. I don’t know about you but this warm, fuzzy Christmas wish is not what happens when my family gets together. We’re lucky enough if we actually manage to get together. Still, we are far from savages … far from THE SAVAGES, that is. Now this is a real family. Mom left when little John and Wendy Savage were still prepubescent. They suddenly found themselves under the sole care of Lenny Savage but his idea of care included neglect and beatings. Now, Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) is nearly 40 and temping to support herself while she dreams of being a playwright in New York City. John Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a theatre professor who has success but carries himself like a failure. As for dear old Dad, Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco) went off and made a home for himself in Sun City, Arizona. He moved in with his lover and the two were together until her death. With dementia and Parkinson’s disease settling in, Lenny is no longer capable of taking care of himself. John and Wendy, having washed their hands of the old man years ago, now have to take responsibility for what is theirs, whether they want to or not. We can run as far away as we want but family is still family.

You would never guess but THE SAVAGES is actually pretty darn funny. Tamara Jenkins both wrote and directed the film, wise to realize that her harsh reality would be difficult to swallow without a little sugar added. In fact, this is the script’s greatest triumph. Life is messy and you will get your hands dirty if you decide to go outside. Still, no matter how hard it gets, laughter makes it easier and Jenkins can see humour in even this dark scenario. The laughter serves not only to put her audience at ease but it slowly heals the Savages as well as they find themselves seeing life more honestly than they ever have before. Nothing forces people to live in the present more than the promise of death. With Lenny reaching the end of his line, John and Wendy must do something they have never done before; they must grow up. (It’s no wonder their surnames are taken directly from the Peter Pan stories.) Growing up for these two means turning around to face the very man they have been running from for their entire lives, seeing him as the fragile human being he is and releasing him of the blame they have laid on him and hid behind for as long as they can recall.

John and Wendy must learn to forgive in order to move on. Simple enough of a concept, perhaps too simple, but Jenkins is smart enough to know that this is a nuanced, sometimes torturous process and one that would require a higher caliber performer to convey. Wendy Savage is essentially paralyzed. She wants to be a writer but lacks the confidence to make that happen. While she lives in the shadow of her brother’s numerous degrees, she makes the cubicle rounds and seems to be waiting for someone to acknowledge her talent as worthy before standing up for it herself. Linney plays Wendy as a woman who knows she deserves more from everyone in her life, including herself, but hasn’t quite figured out how to make that necessity manifest. Meanwhile, brother John doesn’t dress up for funerals, refers to his father as a situation and signs sympathy cards without reading them first. His work is his life and he refuses to feel for anyone but as Hoffman goes from sternly controlling his sister to crying privately in the bathroom in the middle of the night over a woman he does not know how to love, it becomes obvious that the feelings he is trying so hard to suppress will be coming out regardless. The Savage siblings will come a long way from only being able to say, “I love you,” on a balloon.

It would be entirely left field to call THE SAVAGES preachy or overly critical but Jenkins does still draw our attention to some truly savage human behavior – our treatment of the elderly. While the orderlies and nurses are doing their best, they clearly lack funding to make their residents feel as comfortable as possible. Regardless of how you lived your life, there is no reason it should end in small room made even smaller by a curtain that cuts it in half. The elderly may be dying but they aren’t already dead and that’s the way we’re treating them. Jenkins and her sensitive, honest film should be commended for not wagging a judgmental finger in the faces of the characters or the audience but rather showing all involved that caring for our elders in their final hours is definitely hard but there is still laughter to be found in the days before darkness falls.

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[Chris Knipp]

Glad we agree. Thank you again for your favorable comment on my review. Indeed I have a good memory of this and think it's hard not to see it as one of the year's best. The strength of the screenplay is that it focuses on two people who are stagnating, but without seeming forced leads them into action and change. We don't want to give away the ending, but as I mentioned at the beginning of my review a major virtue of the movie is that it has a very positive ending that like everything in the screenplay completely avoids seeming cute or forced or heavy-handed. Starting Out in the Evening, which I hope to write about soon, deals with similarly stuck people, and is a very intelligent piece with great acting, but the screenplay doesn't go anywhere.

You make a number of good points I wish I'd stressed more myself. I might have pointed out more how much a comedy it is. It makes sense to say this is relevant at holiday time and that family dysfunction on this level or close to it is pretty common in end-of-year gatherings. I like your saying Jon (not John--note IMDb cast list) "carries himself like a failure"--that puts it nicely; I didn't know how to phrases it. I would qualify that Wendy is not only imagining herself as a playwright but writing plays, but she is imagining herself too, that's absolutely true and important. And yes, "family is still family"--a central point of the screenplay--you can't escape it. Also the necessity to "forgive in order to movie on," and the fact that dealing with their dad forces them to "grow up." It is also true that "Jenkins does still draw our attention to some truly savage human behavior," but does this through focusing on the institutions and their shortcomings without laying heavy blame on the two siblings. All these are basic points you stress more clearly than I did.

I also agree with you that an important value of the film is that it isn't preachy or judgmental.

Had not realized the names were from Peter Pan. Another great point.