Director Report Card: Tamara Jenkins (2007)

2. The Savages

I don't know why it took nine years for Tamara Jenkins to make another movie. I can only assume the difficulties of acquiring financing for independent films played a role. Like her first feature, her second would also be distributed by Fox Searchlight. So clearly something worked out about the first time around. Whatever the reason for the delay, it would be worth it. “The Savages” would be beloved by critics. The reception was so positive that Jenkins' film would even earned two Oscar nomination, for Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay. It's the kind of achievement that should've launched its filmmaker to wider success and acclaim. That didn't quite happen but “The Savages” remains a valuable film.

One fine morning in the retirement village he lives in, Lenny Savage writes a fowl word in his own shit. Soon afterwards, his longtime girlfriend dies. Since the two had no legal entanglements, his not-stepkids are eager to get Lenny out. His estranged children, Wendy and Jon, come together to take care of their father. Lenny continues to slip into dementia quickly, forcing the siblings to put him in a home. As they live together in the days following Lenny's move, Wendy and Jon find many of the wounds of their childhood – and the difficult realities of their adult lives – coming to the forefront. 

“The Savages” is about a harsh reality we're all going to deal with eventually. One day, our parents are going to die. The people who have taken care of us, who have – for better or worst – molded us, are going to grow old and frail and fall apart. The film addresses the harsh and ugly truths tied up with this. Wendy feels a flood of guilt, attempting to put her father in a nicer nursing home. Her dad, meanwhile, doesn't seem to recognize her at all most of the time. He yells inappropriately. He pisses and shits his pants. It's the extremely painful experience nobody should have to go through but many of us will have to experience anyway. “The Savages” goes to that difficult place with realism and bravery.

As much as “The Savages” is about the hard truth of dealing with a declining parent, it's as much about the relationship between Jon and Wendy. The added stress of handling their father's health brings out years worth of resentment. Wendy has struggled to become a successful playwright, dealing with countless rejections from institutes and toiling away in piddling temp jobs. Jon is a drama professor, currently attempting to complete an academic study of Bertolt Brecht. Their similar dreams and ambitions put Jon and Wendy in the tricky situation of rooting for and against each other. Both are envious of any successes, both wounded by years of feeling some support or another hasn't been given. Eventually, those feelings overflow into shouting arguments. None of this should be unfamiliar to anyone who has a complicated relationship with a sibling. Nobody knows someone for their whole lives without feeling some resentment towards them.

Yet it's not all long-simmering tension and strained conversations between Wendy and Jon. There's warmth and humor there too. When Wendy comes to stay at Jon's home, she has to move around piles of books. To which he, humorously, insists there's some sort of sense of organization. An attempt to unwind with a tennis game soon goes awry, Jon hurting himself. The next sequence, where Wendy hooks him up to a visibly awkward suspension device, is full of familiar, sweet laughter. As easy as it is for siblings to snipe at each other, you also don't go knowing someone your whole life without having some warm feelings towards them too. “The Savages” beautifully captures the sometimes rough back-and-forth we have with our siblings.

“The Savages” is a movie that is full of awkward situations. Sometimes, the film plays these moments for the most uncomfortable sort of humor. The Savage siblings assemble a screening of “The Jazz Singer” for the nursing home... And can only sit back in discomfort as the sequences of blackface play out before the predominantly black nursing staff. Later, Jon and Wendy have a loud argument about the predatory nature of the nursing home industry in a parking lot. Only before a woman with her elderly parent slowly pushes by them. You definitely cringe a little during these moments but there's humor there too. Because these scenes are too relatable not to find some level of laughs there. 

Mostly, “The Savages” harnesses its uncomfortable situations to create an indelible feeling of sadness. As Wendy tries to lead Lenny to the bathroom while on the plane ride, his pants fall down. A lesser director would've played that for laughs but Jenkins feels too keenly for her characters not to play this moment for tragedy. Wendy attempts to find a special pillow she bought her dad, grabbing it away from a crying old woman... Only to discover that her dad doesn't want the pillow anyway. There's a similar energy to a moment where Wendy attempts to kiss an orderly, only for him to gently push her away. It's all feels so real, so painful, as to be almost intolerable.

This kind of bristling material lives and dies depending on the strength of the actors involved. Luckily, Jenkins found two wonderful performers to star as the sibling. Laura Linney brings the appropriate complexity to Wendy. She's a woman going through a mid-life crisis. She's sleeping with a married man. Sometimes, she tells lies in order to gain sympathy or attention. She casually pops pills, depending on them for relief in a way that suggest a low-key addiction. There's definitely something desperate about her attempt to get her autobiographical play produced. Linney never plays Wendy as only pathetic or broken. She's complicated and Linney grants her the honor of that complexity.

Starring opposite Linney is Philip Seymour Hoffman as Jon. If Wendy wears her insecurities on her sleeve, Jon often obscures his feelings behind a stoic exterior. When Wendy asks if he's ever going to marry his longtime girlfriend, Jon is evasive. While Wendy is increasingly shaken or in denial about dad's condition, Jon accepts it immediately. In the last act, even after receiving news that Lenny has passed, Jon remains quiet in front of his classroom. Hoffman doesn't play the character as cruel but as so tightly wound, that he's fearful he'd unravel totally if any emotion was let through. He also brings a certain degree of dryly comedic sarcasm to the part. “The Savages” was released the same year as “Before the Devil Knows Your Dead,” another Philip Seymour Hoffman movie about siblings.

Another interesting element of “The Savages” is how self-reflective it is. Throughout the film, Wendy is insecure about her play being about upper middle-class, white angst. One can't help but imagine Jenkins is commenting on her own film here. This is far from the only reference to pop culture mediums in “The Savages.” A support group for people with senile family members suggest watching an old movie to connect the person with their past. Lenny relates so much to “The Jazz Singer,” that he starts to believe it's a document of his own childhood. A conversation between Wendy and her boyfriend directly references “The Blue Angel.” Jon's fixation on Brecht, who he references as a writer who didn't give people happy endings, seems to reflect his own attitudes about life. How we use art to relate to our own lives is wrapped up inside  'The Savages.”

Another element floating at “The Savages'” margins is how animals help us process our feelings. Wendy's married boyfriend always drags his elderly dog with him on their dates. During an especially unenthusiastic love making session, Wendy reaches out and touches the sad dog's paw. She also has a cat, named Genghis the Beast, that she relates to throughout the film. She brings the cat to visit her father in the nursing home, the animal forming a bond of sorts with the elderly man. Animals provide stability for the characters during their roughest moments, giving love and support that was sorely lacking from their father. 

In “The Savages,” we also see Jenkins' visual sense developing. The film begins with idyllic footage of life in the retirement village. It's bright and sunny, as smiling faces frolic in various ways. This contrasts strongly with the rest of the film, which is set in overcast cities. Jenkins makes you feel the warmth of those initial senses, as well as the chilliness of the rest of the movie. This seems an illustration of the sunniness we hope our latter years will be filled with and the far grimmer reality of the situation.

“The Savages'” overwhelmingly positive reception and its Oscar nominations for Linney and Jenkins' screenplay brought a level of acclaim the director hadn't yet seen in their career. Nowadays, when people revisit the film, it's almost always seen as a tribute to what a wonderful talent the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman was. I suppose that's unavoidable, when a beloved performer that died too young himself starred in a movie about dying. “The Savages” is funny and sad in equal doses. More than anything else, it's a deeply humane film, grappling with universal truths and giving its characters flaws and quirks that make them seem all the more real. [Grade: B+]