FilmFemme

First of all, I am totally susceptible to cartoony-posters like this one.  I love them and they make me think “Ooh!  Quirky but heartwarming with clever dialogue and subtle but deliberate performances!”  I am probably reading too much into that.  Anyway, the names Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman make me think similar thoughts.  So I was looking forward to The Savages.  I actually didn’t even really know what it was about.

The Savages, written and directed by Tamara “Slums of Beverly Hills” Jenkins, is about a brother and sister (Linney and Hoffman) who find out that their father (Philip Bosco), who apparently was never much of a fatherto begin with, is kind of losing his shit and they have to deal with it.

I didn’t not like it.  But it could have been better.  I had a hard time articulating why, because it does have a lot of pieces that should fit together to make a movie that lives up to the poster – I like the story, I like the actors, I like the theme of a brother/sister relationship maturing and being defined in adulthood and the worry about what the hell you’re going to do if your parents ever lose it is universal and interesting to me.  I also really like Slums of Beverly Hills, so Jenkins must be an adequate writer/director. 

Upon reflection, I think a lot of my discomfort with the movie came because I felt like I never got a good sense of what the story was.  Obviously, the impetus for the plot was the dad going nuts (he suffers from dementia, if you want to be clinical about it).  And Wendy and Jon (I just realized those are the same names as two of the siblings from Peter Pan…hmmm…never grow up?  Fall in love with someone you can never have? hmm…) have to reunite and figure out what to do with him. 

But – is it about the tension and reconciliation between Wendy and Jon?  Sort of.  There is tension.  Wendy is sort of a loser who wants to be a writer and Jon is a professor and is writing a book on Brecht (from what I hear about how difficult it is for professors to get jobs, there sure are a lot of them in movies…).  And their relationship does seem to progress.

Is it about their father and what it means to care for the person that raised you?  Well, sort of.  Not in a sentimental way, because they kind of hate their dad for some reason.  I guess he was a bad father, but they never really show or tell us to what degree or if he was really that bad or what.  There is an implication that they had some terrible childhood, but no real evidence of it except for…

…is it about Wendy and how she has an ongoing relationship with a married guy (her intimacy issues that no doubt stem from her mysteriously bad childhood)?  Not really.  I sometimes got the feeling that the movie was more about her than about anyone else, but aside from a couple quirky things she does, I never felt like I knew her.

Is it about Jon and his intimacy issues?  God, I hope not.

Actually, I think any one of these could have made a pretty decent movie.  The performances, of course, were great.  These people know what they’re doing.  The direction was serviceable.  The writing was decent.  But, not to be totally cornball, I didn’t feel like it had a *heart.*  Something to really care about.  You know? 

Or maybe I just didn’t give two shits about some liberal arts professor and wannabe playwright finding happiness, cause I’m just too tired of that.  A wannabe playwright (COME ON!  WHO WRITES PLAYS?) and a brother who STUDIES DRAMA?  Yeah, maybe I’m giving the whole thing too much credit because I want to like it.

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