''The Savages'' is a 2007 American

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to disc ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode ha ...

film written and directed by

Tamara Jenkins Tamara Jenkins (born May 2, 1962) is an American filmmaker and occasional actress. She is best known for her feature films '' Slums of Beverly Hills'' (1998), '' The Savages'' (2007), and '' Private Life'' (2018). Early life Jenkins was born ...

. It stars

Laura Linney Laura Leggett Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an American actress. Having studied acting at Juilliard School (1986-1990), she became known for her complex and multilayered performances on stage and screen. She has received various accolades, ...

Philip Seymour Hoffman Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—typically lowlifes, eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical produ ...

, and

Philip Bosco Philip Michael Bosco (September 26, 1930 – December 3, 2018) was an American actor. He was known for his Tony Award-winning performance as Saunders in the 1989 Broadway production of '' Lend Me a Tenor'', and for his starring role in the 2007 ...

. It had its world premiere at the

2007 Sundance Film Festival The 2007 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 18 until January 28, 2007, in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah and Ogden, Utah. It was the 23-rd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was '' Chica ...

on January 19, 2007. It was released on November 28, 2007, by

Fox Searchlight Pictures Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American film production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century Stu ...

. It received critical acclaim. At the

80th Academy Awards The 80th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2007. The award ceremony took place on February 24, 2008, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During ...

, it earned two nominations: Best Actress (for Linney) and

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...

(for Jenkins). At the 65th Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy (for Seymour Hoffman).

Plot

After drifting apart emotionally over the years, two single siblings—Jon and Wendy, the younger of the two—band together to care for their estranged, elderly father, Lenny, who is rapidly slipping into

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

. Wendy and Jon first travel to

Sun City, Arizona Sun City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, that is located within the Phoenix metropolitan area. The population was 39,931 as of the 2020 census. Its adjoining sister city i ...

to attend the funeral of their father's girlfriend of 20 years. When they arrive, they are told that their father signed a non-marriage agreement and will not have rights to any of her property. They then move him to a nursing home in Buffalo, where Jon is a theater professor working on a book about

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

. Wendy, who is an aspiring, but unsuccessful, playwright, moves from New York City to help establish their father in Buffalo. Neither of the siblings is close with Lenny. It is implied that he was a physically and emotionally

abusive Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

father when Jon and Wendy were growing up and they cut him out of their lives. They were also abandoned by their mother at a young age. Their

dysfunctional family A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often child neglect or abuse and sometimes even all of the above on the part of individual parents occur continuously and regularly, leading other members to accommodate su ...

life appears to have left Wendy and Jon emotionally crippled and unable to sustain a relationship. Wendy is sleeping with an unattainable married man 15 years her senior and Jon cannot commit to a Polish woman who must return to

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

after her visa expires. Their visits to the nursing home and their father's eventual death allow them to reevaluate their lives and to grow emotionally. In the end, Wendy has broken up with her married lover, but has adopted his dog, which he had planned to put down. She is also seen working on the production of her play about their terrible childhood, while Jon is leaving for a conference in Poland where it is suggested he may reconnect with the woman he had let go. The film closes with Wendy running with her lover's dog alive, running with the aid of a wheeled hip cast, suggesting a mode of flawed yet persevering life for both siblings.

Cast

Production

Filming took place from 10 April to early June 2006 in the Buffalo area of New York.

Reception

Critical reception

The film received very favorable reviews from critics. As of October 21, 2020, the review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported that 90% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 173 reviews, and an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's consensus states: "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."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

reported the film had an average score of 85 out of 100, based on 35 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

'' magazine's

Richard Schickel Richard Warren Schickel (February 10, 1933 – February 18, 2017) was an American film historian, journalist, author, documentarian, and film and literary critic. He was a film critic for '' Time'' magazine from 1965–2010, and also w ...

named the film #7 of his Top 10 Movies of 2007, and praises both the cast and writer-director: The film appeared on many critics' top 10 lists of the best films of 2007. * 1st - Carina Chocano, ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' (tied with '' The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'') * 3rd - Ella Taylor, ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose par ...

'' (tied with ''

Away from Her ''Away from Her'' is a 2006 Canadian independent drama film written and directed by Sarah Polley and starring Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent. Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy, Wendy Crewson, Alberta Watson, and Kristen Thomson are featured in s ...

'') * 3rd - Sheri Linden, ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' * 5th - David Edelstein, ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...

'' magazine * 5th - Marjorie Baumgarten, ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demog ...

'' * 6th - Lawrence Toppman, ''

The Charlotte Observer ''The Charlotte Observer'' is an American English-language newspaper serving Charlotte, North Carolina, and its metro area. The Observer was founded in 1886. As of 2020, it has the second-largest circulation of any newspaper in the Carolinas. ...

'' * 7th - Kirk Honeycutt, ''

'' * 7th - Peter Hartlaub, ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The p ...

'' * 7th - Richard Schickel, ''TIME'' magazine * 8th - Frank Scheck, ''

'' * 8th - Nathan Rabin, ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cr ...

'' * 8th - Ray Bennett, ''

'' * 9th - A. O. Scott, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' (tied with ''

'') * 10th - Carrie Rickey, ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' * 10th - Manohla Dargis, ''

'' (7-way tie)

Awards

Academy Award for Best Actress The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...

(

) **

Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with th ...

(

) * Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards ** Actor of the Year (

) -- WON (Also for: ''

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead ''Before the Devil Knows You're Dead'' is a 2007 American crime thriller film directed by Sidney Lumet. The film was written by Kelly Masterson, and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney. The title comes from ...

'' and '' Charlie Wilson's War'') *

Chicago Film Critics Association Awards The Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) is an association of professional film critics, who work in print, broadcast and online media, based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The organization was founded in 1990 by film critics Sharon L ...

** Best Actress (Laura Linney) ** Best Screenplay, Original (Tamara Jenkins) * 65th Golden Globe Awards ** Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) *

Gotham Awards The Gotham Awards () are American film awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, the city first nicknamed "Gotham" by native son Washington Irving, in an issue of '' Salmagundi'', published o ...

** Best Ensemble Cast (

, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney) *

Independent Spirit Awards The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass ...

** Best Cinematography ( W. Mott Hupfel III) ** Best Director (Tamara Jenkins) ** Best Male Lead (Philip Seymour Hoffman) -- WON ** Best Screenplay (Tamara Jenkins) -- WON *

London Critics Circle Film Awards The London Film Critics' Circle is the name by which the Film Section of The Critics' Circle is known internationally. The word London was added because it was thought the term Critics' Circle Film Awards did not convey the full context of the ...

** Actress of the Year (Laura Linney) * Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ** Best Screenplay (Tamara Jenkins) -- WON * National Society of Film Critics Awards ** Best Screenplay (Tamara Jenkins) -- WON * Nilsson Awards for Film ** Best Picture ** Best Actor in a Leading Role (Philip Seymour Hoffman) ** Best Actress in a Leading Role (Laura Linney) ** Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Philip Bosco) ** Best Original Screenplay (Tamara Jenkins) ** Best Cast ** Best Original Score *

Online Film Critics Society Awards The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) is an international professional association of online film journalists, historians and scholars who publish their work on the World Wide Web. The organization was founded in January 1997 by Harvey S. Karten ...

** Best Actress (Laura Linney) * San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards ** Best Screenplay - Original (Tamara Jenkins) -- WON *

Satellite Awards The Satellite Awards are annual awards given by the International Press Academy that are commonly noted in entertainment industry journals and blogs. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards. The award ceremonies take plac ...

** Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama (Laura Linney) * Women Film Critics Circle Awards ** Best Actress (Laura Linney) -- WON *

Writers Guild of America Awards The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility Th ...

** Best Original Screenplay (Tamara Jenkins)

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Savages 2007 films American black comedy films American comedy-drama films Fox Searchlight Pictures films 2007 independent films Films about dysfunctional families Films about siblings Films set in Sun City, Arizona Films set in New York (state) Films shot in New York (state) Films scored by Stephen Trask Films produced by Anne Carey Films directed by Tamara Jenkins Films with screenplays by Tamara Jenkins 2007 black comedy films 2007 comedy-drama films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films Films about disability