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List Price: $27.98Amazon.com's Price: $16.99 You Save: $10.99 (39%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: SAVAGES - WIDESCREEN (DVD MOVIE)
EAN: 0024543506799
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Item Dimensions: 100
Label: Twentieth Century Fox
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageEnglishSubtitledFrenchSubtitledSpanishSubtitledSpanishDubbed
Manufacturer: Twentieth Century Fox
MPN: FOXD2250679D
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Twentieth Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 22, 2008
Running Time: 114 minutes
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
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Editorial Review:
Product Description: Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 04/22/2008 Run time: 113 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com: It's almost impossible to describe The Savages in a way that makes it sound as richly engaging and enjoyable as it is. The story sounds bleak: Two unhappy siblings--Wendy (Laura Linney, You Can Count on Me) and Jon Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote)--are forced to grapple with their dying father (Philip Bosco, Damages) as he slips into dementia. But this spare outline doesn't capture the wealth of human detail that the script and performances contain. Linney and Hoffman vividly portray the sort of cluttered, precarious relationship that brothers and sisters can have, thick with past grievances but also unspoken affections and connections that can't even be articulated. As Wendy and Jon struggle to make some kind of peace with their difficult father, watching these wonderfully understated yet compelling actors is a pleasure unto itself. But the script and direction deserve these actors; filmmaker Tamara Jenkins (Slums of Beverly Hills) finds honest emotion and sly, sideways humor in the starkness of mortality. She doesn't force any easy epiphanies on her story, but lets the characters find solace through their own clumsy efforts. Anyone who appreciates the messiness of humanity--the territory that Hollywood movies seem to have surrendered to smart indie films like The Squid and the Whale, Little Children, or The Good Girl--will find The Savages a smart, genuine, and empathic portrait of life. --Bret Fetzer
Beyond The Savages  More from Laura Linney |  More from Philip Seymour Hoffman |  More Comedies from Fox |
Stills from The Savages
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
When the elderly Lenny has a "toileting incident," and his girl friend Doris dies, his baby boomer children from whom he has been long estranged travel from New York to Sun City, Arizona, to care for their dad. Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) relocate Lenny to Buffalo, New York, where they put him in a "nursing home." There are curled family photos to sort through, bingo twice a week, reams of forms to sign, and palpable angst about what they've done and how everyone will cope. "We're taking better care of him," says Jon, "than he did of us." Lenny suffers from dementia and "disinhibition." Jon is 42 and single, has high cholesterol, and just lost his Polish girlfriend. Wendy is 39 and single, has a boyfriend who's married, pops Xanax for her nerves, and hopes to jump start her freelance writing career with a grant. Writer and director Tamara Jenkins was nominated for an Oscar for combining mid-life humor and family heartache in a destiny that awaits us all -- the ... Read More
Rating: -
Billed as a dark comedy, 'The Savages' is certainly not standard movie fare but I think it's a film that we're richer for having around. Many have tackled end-of-life issues before but very few have done it like this. It is an unsentimental, unapologetic, slice-of-life depiction of two middle aged siblings, Linney (in an Oscar-nominated turn) and Hoffman, managing the rapid mental deterioration and death of their estranged, abusive father and the process - physiological and logistical - that entails.
It averts its gaze from none of the practical and emotional issues met by everyone whose family members live so long. From scatological problems to the appalling reality of nursing homes to the pressures of guilt, it covers the bases. It does punctuate it with moments of humor and sprinkles knowingly wry observations of sibling dynamics throughout. But there are no saccharine reconciliations or dramatic changes of heart in the last act to pull the punches. Things just happen and ... Read More
Rating: -
Hoffman is first rate, as always. I've never really been a Linney fan, but I could really relate to this character. Bosco was brilliant. I can only say this film's portrayal of the scenario was REAL. It struck a nerve... was raw, intense, funny at times, ironic. A real treasure of acting and filmmaking.
Rating: -
It is hard to watch a movie when none of the characters are likable enough to even care about them. The father and son's characters seemed believable to me, but Wendy completely lost me. But then what would one expect from a forty year old spinster whose lofty relationship aspiration is a love-HATE affair with a married man? Watch the movie for the men's acting, but don't expect to get any edification on family relationships. The best I can say for this movie is that it raises the question (but gives no answers) of caring for elderly members of our families who are distinctly failing.
Rating: -
From the opening scene on, it is apparent the director is taking cues from "indie" movies of the past couple decades and exploring well-worn territory. The actors are forced to play scarcely likeable charcters and deliver lines of dialogue better suited for a TV program on the WB network. Have I mentioned I didn't like this movie?
Sure, it offers something different than your average Hollywood pile of hackneyed vomit, but it lacks the substance of truly moving cinema and instead employs cheap tactics meant to make us feel a certain way.
Even though I knew I didn't like what I was watching, I sat through the whole thing to give it a chance to redeem itself. I took nothing away from the experience. I was curious about who was responsible for this, so I watched the behind the scenes featurette wherein the director babbles on and on about her beloved masterpiece. Then I REALLY hated the movie. From my perspective, this is the self-indulgent dabbling of a bourgeois snob with ... Read More
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