THE SAVAGES
US, 2007, 113 minutes, Colour.
Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman, Rosemary Murphy.
Directed by Tamara Jenkins.
It is a pity that the ironic overtones of the name of the focus family, The Savages, indicates more of a barbarity than they actually display. Lenny Savage, the ageing father slipping into dementia, has acted in savage ways towards his children when they were growing up and has become a cantankerous old man who taunts his (not always kindly) carer by smearing insults on the bathroom wall with his excrement. But, his two children, who have to face up to the reality of his condition and their filial responsibilities, are by no means savage. In many ways, they treat him far better than he deserves.
We are introduced to the two Savages. Wendy is late 30s, unmarried, living in New York City, a would-be playwright (about her childhood), a temp who keeps applying for literary grants and who is having an affair with a married neighbour. John, on the other hand, is early 40s, a theatre professor in Buaffalo writing on Brecht, living with a Polish woman who is about to be deported. As played by Laura Linney (receiving an Oscar nomination) and Philip Seymour Hoffman, they are well-delineated characters whom the audience gets to know very well indeed. Philip Bosco is excellent as the obstreperous father.
The film is about middle-aged children coping with their father’s decline, the problems of moving him into a care institution, how to overcome their past hostilities, spending time with their father while coping with their own problems. Many people face these issues every day and deal with them with common sense and commitment. Americans tend to overdramatise the ordinary, making such situations more sensational than they are actually are. Wendy and John behave melodramatically at times. Wendy is moved by feelings and equates responsibility with guilt feelings. John, on the other hand, is more practical, thinks things through and acts decisively.
However, there are many powerful scenes as the children communicate with their father and he slips in and out of reality. Wendy is fortunate in the support she receives from a Nigerian born carer who works well with the father. The experience with their father and with each other brings Wendy and John to some kind of mid-life peace.
With the two leads, there is quite an amount of verbal sparring, some of which is cleverly humorous. There is also soul-searching and facing the true self which is cleverly serious. Audiences who have experienced similar situations will resonate with the issues.
1.The impact of the film? For different generations? For the elderly? For the middle-aged? Audiences identifying with characters and situations? The American culture of ageing and death? For non-Americans?
2.Ageing in the 21st century, in the US and the West, the individual ageing people and the response of family? Their lives? Responsibilities and burdens? Not having the extended family? The institutions and nursing homes? Their style, for the aged themselves, for the families’ comfort? Dementia? Care? Death?
3.The opening and Sun City, the neatness, the bright sun, a geriatric Fantasyland? The exercises, the groups, the sameness of the houses? The residents, the care, the family, Lenny and the toilet, the limits of the carer, his harshness with Lenny, Lenny’s being obstreperous? The carer and his reaction? His writing in excrement on the wall? Doris, silent, getting her nails done, her death? Her daughter selling the house? Lenny having no legal connection? The reactions of Doris’s children – humane or not?
4.The introductions to Wendy and Jon? Their history, their mother walking out, the father and his brutality? Wendy and her writing the play, the description, Wake Me When It’s Over? The finale and the dramatising of the father’s brutality towards Jon?
5.Wendy and her age, single, the reasons? At work, a temp? Her filling in the applications for grants? The later revelation about her money after 9/11? Larry, her reaction to him, the relationship, the dog, the cat, the affair? Her self-betrayal according to Larry? The Pap smear, the message on the phone, her lies to Larry? Her Bette Davis phone-answering? Her reliance on the old classic movies?
6.Jon, his writing, his work, Brecht? His relationship? The Brechtian clue to his behaviour? His work, the reaction to the phone call in the night, to his father’s illness?
7.Jon’s handling of the situation, the meetings, talking with Wendy, with the personnel? Flying out together? Doris’s family, the card, the balloon for their father? Discovering the lack of legal obligations for Lenny? Wendy and her packing up? Going to see their father in hospital, his reactions? The night at the hotel, Jon on the phone, weeping? Leaving, the breaking up of his relationship and his partner going back to Poland? Wendy and her packing, going to her father, exiting the hospital, the awkwardness of getting on the plane, the chairs, his wanting to go to the toilet, taking off his braces, his trousers falling? Arriving in the East? The hostel? The documents, the room, Lenny sharing? His thinking it was a hotel? The discussion of important issues like funerals, power of attorney …?
8.The character of Lenny, the first glimpse, the issue of flushing, eating his cereal, his excrement and writing on the wall, his relationship with Doris, going to the hospital, becoming free, on the plane, his dementia, going in and out? Life in the institution, his settling down, the assistants, Jimmy and his way of helping him? Watching the movies, identifying with New York, watching The Jazz Singer – and the scenes a Al Jolson blacking up, Jon and Wendy and their embarrassment, the black people in the audience? The outings, going to visit Green Hills, his answers to the questions, the issue of the red pillow and not wanting it, knowing and not knowing what was happening, his reaction to Jon, to Wendy, the various visits? Their keeping vigil? His death?
9.Wendy and her situation, her guilt towards her father, the emotional response, discussions with Jon, the relationship with Larry? The letters, the grant, her lie that she had got a grant? Her motivations? Buying things for her father, trying to go more upmarket by going to Green Hills? The trip around Buffalo, Niagara Falls? Larry and his phone calls, his bringing the cat, the plant dying? Her discussions with Jimmy, the play, finding the cat, the impulsive kiss, his honourable reaction? His explaining about death and the toes curling, her looking at her father?
10.Jon as more realistic, the arrangements, his use of time, work, the issue of Thanksgiving, the discussions with Wendy about her abilities, the grant? The decisions? Handling the authorities, the documents, the diner and the questions about his father’s death, coma, the burial? His thesis, his class, getting the news about his father’s death? Issues of Brecht, the Brechtian songs that he was singing? His weeping and thinking? Coping or not? Going to Poland, the possibility of commitment?
11.The carers, smiling, the DVDs, the lady at Green Hills, at the institution, the offhand approach, Jimmy and his concern?
12.Jimmy as a character, from Nigeria, with Lenny, gentle with him, the discussions with Wendy, reading her play, his comments, the kiss, his own stances?
13.The six months later, the play, Larry and the production, Wendy and her coping, talking with Jon, Jon watching the play, weeping, going to Poland? Wendy and her running with the dog – not having been put down? Symbolic?
14.Wendy and her concern about bourgeois attitudes, middle-class whining? Insights? The comparisons with life in Nigeria and the comment on America? Brecht and the different approaches between emotion and thinking? Narrative and argument?
