The Savages: DVD Review (2008)

Follows a fractured family standing at the intersection of death and dementia.

Laura Linney is Wendy Savage, a difficult, struggling playwright living in New York City who has a cat and a ficus tree that she loves, and a mate (Peter Friedman) 13 years older than she who is physically available to her, though not emotionally--he’s married.

Wendy’s brother Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a frumpy theater professor living in Buffalo, NY, and he has problems of his own, not the least of which is his fiercely competitive relationship with his sister and his own inability to create a meaningful relationship.

It’s how these two must come together and deal with their abusive, distant and ailing father Lenny (Philip Bosco) that turns this shattered family inside out with guilt, rage and grief over the course of several weeks.

Excellent performances mark "The Savages," with Linney and Hoffman each navigating characters who could have become unlikable had they not been shaded with nuance. They’re damaged people, yes, but they are only savages by name.

Read the full, unedited review here.

Rated R. Grade: B+

View the trailer below: