Dark comedies are a fun bunch - normally, they take average situations, manipulate them, and add some interesting and quirky characters to put them in very serious situations. Most of the time, the "comedy" aspect of the film is a loose categorization, where the humor takes a back seat to the more serious side of the finale.
The Savages, then, embodies all of this in its plot, mixing comedy with an unnerving look at the deterioration of a parent. Directed by Tamara Jenkins, the film follows two siblings: Wendy (Laura Linney), a struggling playwright, mistress of married man Larry (Peter Friedman), and, as we come to find later in the movie, a big fat liar; and Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a cranky Philosophy of Drama professor living in Buffalo with an on-and-off love affair involving a Polish woman he can't commit to. At first, both Jon and Wendy have split from each other as their lives have taken them to different places, but when their father, Lenny (Philip Bosco), is diagnosed with dementia, Jon and Wendy are forced to come together to take care of him. There is, of course, a few problems with this situation, as neither child can care for Lenny full-time with their job schedules, and they are pushed to making the decision to put Lenny in a nursing home.
If it sounds like a pretty serious set-up, it is. There are only a few moments that can really be considered comedic, and even then, they happen in the context of a very serious dialogue, tending to lighten the atmosphere a little. I really liked this, though - the darker, heavier subject matter is intimidating and disheartening, as it should be. The strength of the film is carried by the dialogue - Wendy, Jon, and Larry interacting with each other, and for it to succeed, the audience needs to feel a deep connection with all three characters. Luckily, their emotional problems are relatable and significant enough to attract the viewer. Both have their own distinct personalities while also recognizably similar to each other. At first, it seems as though Wendy is the more likable of the two, possibly because we are introduced to her first, but at the same time, Jon has a similarly compelling aura because of his deep depression.
Even though we don't see Lenny very much, he also grabs a hold of the viewer. Obviously, this is partly because he is dying, but it's also because of Philip Bosco's excellent portrayal of his battle with dementia. Lenny is both aware and slowly losing consciousness of his surroundings, made all the more difficult to watch with Bosco's moving performance.
The storyline does not have much in the way of a linear plot. Instead, the film is tasked with juggling both Jon and Wendy's struggle of dealing with their father's sickness, each of the siblings' internal conflicts, and a brother-sister competition. In some ways, it's too convoluted for its own good, but then again, it makes sense to have all of these conflicts interacting with each other to such a degree that everything seems to fall apart. What did bother me, however, was that some plot lines were introduced and then just fizzled out of existence - I wanted to see what happened with them or where they went to.
Dealing with the concept of losing a parent is hard, made harder by the thriving performances that Hoffman and Linney give. They are, for the most part, images of real people, and they certainly feel genuine. Their embarrassment is both understandable and frustrating, as the audience thinks they would do a much better job in the characters' shoes. This is bullshit, and we all know it, and the film explores this viewpoint. There's no right or wrong answer to what Jon and Wendy are facing. They can't study their way out of it, though they try, like they could with a play.
Admirably, the film mirrors its characters' fascination with drama and theater by presenting its plot as a theatrical show might. Most backstory is not shown but told through dialogue - in fact, we only learn about potential child abuse by Lenny through dialogue. It's an interesting tie-in with the subject matter.
One thing that must be remembered is that the strength is in the writing, not the action. The film might seem slow to those who are more visually entertained, but the ones who are patient enough to wait for the "dramatic action," as I will call it, will be greatly rewarded. The most powerful moments occur when the characters clash, getting to the heart of societal dilemmas. At one point, Jon points out a huge theme of the film through a chilling monologue - that we try to fool ourselves with fancy buildings that make nursing homes look like elegant hotels when in fact we are just trying to forget the fact that people die. That it's often messy, and there's no easy way to deal.
And in the end, when Lenny Savage does end up dying (as is inevitable from the beginning of the film), there's almost a peace that allows the characters to overcome their hang-ups. Death has brought a mess, but it clears up with time, just as it has allowed the pall over Jon and Wendy's lives to dissipate. While the story's not perfect, the message that it gives is evocative, thoughtful, and a bit scary to those of us who have not gone through the painful loss of a close relative - one asks, what is in store for me? And will it clear up like in the film? Life and death - two abstracts that appear to us really quite savage, literally and, for the movie's case, metaphorically speaking.
The Savages on Rotten Tomatoes
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