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10/18/08
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The Savages (2007)
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Reviews Counted:37
Fresh:36
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7.9/10
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
Top CriticLinney and Hoffman are both terrific, and Jenkins's script is pointed and perceptive, but the film's arc is a little flat.
09/22/08
Top CriticIt's billed as a comedy. You may or may not find much to laugh at.
02/07/08
Top CriticPowerful, painful and yet unerringly funny as it points out our emotional and physical vulnerabilities, this is a film that finds the humor in tragedy while keeping both omnipresent.
12/26/07
Top CriticThe Savages not only boasts Oscar-worthy performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as a self-absorbed brother and sister, its attention to detail makes it sweetly funny and genuine.
12/26/07
Top CriticThe film is savagely funny about the indignities of old age, yet optimistic that it’s never too late to have a happy childhood.
12/26/07
Top CriticThe dynamic that operates throughout this film is fantasy versus reality, not just in the lives of the characters but in American life in general.
12/21/07
Top CriticTamara Jenkins has made a movie about something that lots of people are going through but nobody wants to deal with, not even in life, much less in entertainment. And she's done it fearlessly, with the right mix of humor and horror.
12/21/07
Top CriticSmartly written and beautifully played.
12/21/07
Top CriticBoth Linney and Hoffman are so specific in creating these characters that we see them as people, not elements in a plot.
12/21/07
Top CriticIts astringent humor is not funny ha-ha, it's funny-ouch.
12/21/07
Top CriticAssured and sharp, The Savages is only Jenkins' second feature-length film. You'd never know it.
12/20/07
Top CriticOne of those genre-defying hybrids that are sometimes called dramedies, The Savages tiptoes along a particularly fraught emotional tightrope, balancing observant humor and deep sadness with uncommon grace.
12/20/07
Top CriticAlthough 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 CriticI wouldn't call the film inspirational — it is too well observed to succumb to easy sentiment — but its realism is patiently engaging and subtly insinuating
12/12/07
Top CriticWith the help of acting giants, [director Tamara] Jenkins turns The Savages into a twisted, bittersweet pleasure.
12/05/07
Top CriticTamara Jenkins returns with a story that squarely addresses the concerns of middle age, treating them with the gravity they deserve but also the forbearance and humor they often demand.
12/04/07
Top CriticOne of those small, perfectly crafted, bittersweet family dramas it touches on so many truths it’s almost painful to watch at times.
12/03/07
Top CriticThe movie also comes with the wistful sadness of a maturing filmmaker who understands that in matters of death, sorrow and black comedy often walk hand in hand.
11/30/07
Top CriticWhile The Savages is a story about decrepitude and death, and chronicles a family whose wounds run too deep, it never has that claustrophobic, trapped-in-a-nightmare feeling of some dysfunctional family flicks.
11/29/07
Top CriticLatest News for The Savages
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