Skip to main content

The Savages (2007)

The Savages. Feature film. (2007, 114 mins) IMDB

...old man in diapers...

S

avages refers to the name of the family. There's Lenny, an old and estranged father, and Wendy, his daughter, and Jon, his son.

Lenny lives in Arizona with a girlfriend. She's as old as him--maybe older. Just as we "get to know her" she dies. With her death, Lenny has no place to stay. His children are called and asked to help. Jon travels from Buffalo and Wendy from NYC. What follows in the movie is how the two siblings deal with their estranged father and the impact it has on their lives.

Wendy lives in Manhattan. We first meet her working in an office where instead of working for her employer, she steals office supplies, writes up applications for grants and uses the postage meter to mail her applications. She lives alone in a small apartment. A neighbour visits. His wife thinks he's out walking the dog, but instead he's fucking Wendy. Not only is he married, but he's older. There's a look on Wendy's face that says, this is the best I can do and puts up with him.

Jon has a Ph.D in theatre. He teaches at some unstated college. He's working on a book about Bertolt Brecht. He lives in an old house cluttered with books and papers. He has a girlfriend who is Polish but since her visa has expired must leave the country. He won't marry her, which would allow her to stay, because, well, he has his reasons.

The bulk of the story deals with the siblings and their father. The step by step process of figuring out where he is and what state he is in and what to do from there. They find him in a hospital and decide to relocate him to a nursing home in Buffalo.

The father doesn't have a lot to say or do in the film. He spends most of his time asleep or semi-comatose. When he does speak it's to emphasize the fact he's losing his mind and just isn't with it. Not an effective character.

Jon spends his time being dutiful because he has to and he just wants to get it over with so he can get on with his life. He has as much joy about what he's doing as he would carrying the garbage to the curb.

Wendy is the true hero of this story. I suppose that's not surprising since the film is written by a woman. She realizes her relationship with a married man isn't such a good idea and ends it. She lies about getting a grant, but manages to get her play in production with a small theatre in NYC. It's a tiny step, but a step forward.

The film tries to shock us with the outrageous behaviour of the father (mostly related to bodily functions). I was neither shocked or outraged, simply annoyed. Do we really need to see this? Of course not. A man in diapers isn't interesting. Where's the wit? Where's the insight? Where's something other than the obvious.

The ending is telegraphed and sudden and not realistic. Lenny could have lived another five or ten years, but the story didn't call for that.

Posted 2009/04/23 at 19h19ET in Movie Commentary.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Piece of the Action (1977)

Saturday, March 7, 2009 A Piece of the Action. Feature film. (1977, 135 mins) IMDB ... Who would you have over for dinner? Sidney Poitier or Bill Cosby. ... A PIECE OF THE ACTION is the third film starring Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. Poitier also directed the films. (And yes, I would be fascinating to have both them sitting around a table for dinner.) We're in Chicago and I love the setup for this film. It's clever, fun and interesting. It starts during the dark of night. Crosby is a cat burglar robbing a vault in a bank. He's by himself, all the tools he needs, and doesn't speak a word of dialogue for at least the first twenty minutes of the film. It must have been killing him. His robbery goes off successfully. (It includes a jump from a six or seven story window. There was a similar scene in their earlier films.) When the cops arrive during the daylight, they haven't a clue and we catch a glimpse of James Earl Jones as a detect...

If Only We Could Agree

Monday, June 11, 2012 ... have you been accused of misspelling a word you know is correct ... S usanne O’Leary wrote an interesting article on her experience with the variations of the English language in different countries. You know the obvious ones like colour with or without a “u” but less obvious ones like travelled versus traveled. Growing up in Sweden she learnt English in school—the UK variation. In publishing her books, she read reviews where she was criticized for improper spelling. False accusations as it turns out. While I write tire and cozy, it’s not incorrect to write tyre or cosy. Same language. Both accepted. Just different. You can read her write-up here along with the numerous comments posted by readers. I found it interesting, but that’s me. As a Canadian I deal with this issue everyday. I feel her pain when she’s criticized for something based on ignorance. No fun. I was told by a boss that “data are” isn’t correct. It should be “data is.” Read...

No Reservations (2007)

Saturday, May 2, 2009 No Reservations. Feature film. (2007, 104 mins) IMDB ... I so much wanted to like this film but couldn't ... T his film had two things I like a great deal: romance and cooking, but they didn't come together for me in this film. I think I know why. The female lead doesn't strike me as a romantic leading lady. That's just me. I also found the story line stale and uninteresting. Our hero lives in NYC working at a fine dining restaurant where she is the chef and dictator. Everything about her life is about cooking. Nothing else seems to matter. No children. No relationships. Then her life is kicked apart. Her sister and niece travel to visit her but before they arrive, there's an accident. The mother dies and little Zoe has to live with her aunt. Our hero struggles to include a new person into her life but what follows is so predictable as to be boring. To add even more complications to our hero's life, her sous...