This is not a Sam Shepherd play; it feels more like HBO.
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11/27/07
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The Savages (2007)
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Reviews Counted:162
Fresh:144
Rotten:18
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: Thanks to a tender, funny script from director Tamara Jenkins, and fine performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney, this film delivers a nuanced, beautifully three-dimensional look at the struggles and comforts of family bonds.
Theatrical Release:Nov 30, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $6,426,953
Synopsis: Director Tamara Jenkins made audiences sit for nearly a decade for her follow-up to the hilarious dark comedy SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS, but it's been worth the wait. Like her previous film, THE... [More]
Starring: Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman
Director: Tamara Jenkins
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Reviews for The Savages
Sharp, funny, and acerbic...Movies that are as truthful and observant as this one are rare.
12/03/07
It is the very particular humanity of the characters involved that makes it a successful and unique work of art.
12/28/07
Although the story may sound as dismal as Buffalo's weather, it's surprisingly funny. Not gag funny, but observation funny -- the absurdities of real life, seen and presented.
12/20/07
Top Critic...bitter and heartbreaking, an unsentimental examination of human needfulness that allows for traces of grace amid the ashes.
01/18/08
Despite its dark humor, The Savages tackles the tough topics of aging, frailty, humiliation and death. All depressing stuff, to be sure, but Jenkins handles it with a delicate, relatable touch, and without being maudlin.
11/28/07
Top CriticThis film is immensely rewarding and in its own way exceptionally beautiful.
07/18/08
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10/18/08
In Tamara Jenkins' brutally frank and occasionally funny look at lives shaped by disappointment and fear, their love for each other binds them through the worst of times.
01/24/08
Jenkins' superlative work proves her first film was no fluke; let's hope it doesn't take another nine years to hear from her again.
02/01/08
The frequent outbursts of comedy help alleviate a tone that's appropriately muted and sad, and Jenkins should be credited for refusing to tack smiley-faces onto a tough, possibly lose-lose situation.
11/29/07
Reality wounds but also heals in The Savages, writer-director Tamara Jenkins' cuttingly funny-sad family drama.
12/26/07
Excellent performances mark "The Savages," with Linney and Hoffman each navigating characters who could have become unlikable had they not been shaded with nuance.
12/19/07
It's just a shame the script doesn't push the humour further; brief, amusing put-downs aren't quite enough to make this a bonafide comedy. But if you're looking for a well-performed drama about dementia, you've got it.
01/01/08
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney are typically superb as a brother and sister brought together to care for their aging father in Tamara Jenkins' acute, if sometimes sluggish, follow-up to Slums of Beverly Hills.
11/28/07
Smartly written and beautifully played.
12/21/07
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04/03/08
[Bosco's] performance as a senior going through the motions of aging is hypnotic, heartbreaking, and dead-on. It's the kind of performance awards were created for.
11/30/07
The fact that "Savages" looks at an ordinary and often inevitable part of life shouldn't obscure the fact that this is a beautifully written and wonderfully played film, capturing the nuances of family dynamics as assuredly as any film I've seen in quite
01/18/08
A powerful, incisive, often very funny look at aging, ailing family dynamics, superbly acted by two of the best in the business.
01/24/08
Latest News for The Savages
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January 11, 2008:
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