Philip Seymour Hoffman Fest: The Savages

2007 family drama

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A drama professor and his aspiring dramatist sister are forced to face their insecurities when their estranged father on the other side of the country begins showing signs of dementia. 

Intriguing opener with some elderly dancers emerging from topiary'd bushes looks like it could have come straight from a David Lynch movie. And that's followed soon enough with a shot of Philip Bosco (Two Philips in this movie! How many would the Screen Writers Guild allow you to have in one movie?) writing on the bathroom wall with his own fecal matter. In my humble opinion, you can't have enough fecal matter in a movie although I've heard that the Screen Writers Guild likes to keep the amount of scenes involving excrement to one or, for obvious reasons, zero if it's a movie featuring Sylvester Stallone. And what did poor Stallone do to deserve this? Here I'm trying to pay tribute to the great Philip Seymour Hoffman, and I have to take a shot at Sylvester Stallone for no reason. That hardly seems fair. But I digress. This is billed as a comedy/drama, but the drama should definitely come first. And there are a lot of people who won't see much comedy in this at all. I'm drawn to dark humor, but this is pretty depressing. When you don't have any characters at all who seem the slightest bit happy, it's difficult to call something a comedy. Still, there are funny moments for people who like poking fun at human suffering. The two Philips are joined by Laura Linney. I'm not sure I'd automatically think of pairing her with Hoffman as siblings, but they have a great screen rapport here, and I ended up buying the relationship. Of course, I think I'm learning that Philip Seymour Hoffman had this ability to make anybody he acted with better. Linney pulls off both smart and really insecure, a woman defeated in ways she doesn't understand by her past. She's also the more likable of the siblings since she has at least a little bit of a heart left. Hoffman's a jerk, but you see why after you put all the pieces together. And really, putting pieces together is what this movie is all about. Hoffman gets some memorable scenes here--he has to act in this ridiculous contraption after hurting his neck, drives in a pain killer haze while singing in German, carries a balloon around in a funny bit of visual humor, and snatches a sympathy card in anger. I'd also like to know if the baby picture shown in this was really of him or if all babies sort of look like they could be Phillip Seymour Hoffman. There's also a great scene where Hoffman cries while eating eggs. "Your brother won't marry me, but when I cook him eggs, he cries." I don't know if I like seeing anybody cry (except for my students maybe), but he sure is good at it. I'll have to keep track during Philip Seymour Hoffman Fest, but I think the guy cries in a lot of movies. Anyway, I liked these two together, and I really liked a scene where they have a cross-country phone call with much different weather, a nifty visual to show their different personalities. Bosco is also really good as the dad, lost and feisty and unhappy with his own skin. Writer/director Tamara Jenkins could have taken a cheaper, easier route with that character, and I'm glad she didn't although the ending feels Hollywoody enough. I'm not sure the titular family is really likable, but I didn't mind spending this amount of time with them at all. 

This was a hard movie to steal a poster for because of that Oliver Stone movie. This is the superior "Savage" movie though.

My apologies Sylvester Stallone just in case he Googles himself and finds this.