Greetings again from the darkness. Writer/Director Tamara Jenkins showed off her flair for dysfunctional families in her last film "Slums of Beverly Hills". Here she tackles a most difficult, and ever-growing issue of boomers caring for their elderly parents ... often dealing with not only declining physical health, but increasingly with Alzheimers, Dementia and MS. Toss in two not-even-kinda-close siblings and an estranged, abusive parent in need and you have Ms. Jenkins' brand of topical observation.

I have been threatening to jump off the Laura Linney bandwagon for a couple of years. Her most recent roles strike me as little more than line reading and beady-eyed stares. Here, she comes to play again. She flashes all the frustration that one would expect from a lonely, mostly intelligent 40ish woman whose life is really just a mess. Her only functional (barely) relationship is with her cat.

Her father's onset of dementia and forced home evacuation causes the necessary teaming with her brother, played by the brilliant Philip Seymour Hoffman. The two must step up and "take better care of the old man than he ever did for us". Anyone who has been through this painful process recognizes most of the pain, discomfort and loss of dignity that the family must endure. The scene of Linney and her dad on the plane is just excruciating.

The film does a marvelous job of capturing the real life juggles of numerous relationships that we all go through. As if that isn't quite challenging enough, the pending death of a parent and all of the decisions and emotions that go with it act as a compounding stress agent. Here the dad is played to perfection by character actor Philip Bosco as he fights to stay in control even as he recognizes his slippage.

My only complaints with this film are Ms. Jenkins' apparent obsession with prescription drugs and the overall poor direction of the film. She is obviously a magnificent writer, but this film in a real director's hands could have taken the next step. Still, it provides terrific insight into an all too real situation.

One quick point about Philip Seymour Hoffman. This guy has delivered THREE outstanding performances this year with "The Savages", "Charlie Wilson's War" and "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead". I believe the Academy should forego the "Best Performance by an Actor" this year and just hand Mr. Hoffman a statue for "Actor of the Year". It is such a pleasure to watch his talent on screen.

The Savages (2007) was written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. Jenkins gets everything right in this film about three family members who barely connect with each other. Laura Linney plays Wendy Savage--a NYC playwright who works as a temp and waits for an artistic breakthrough. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays her brother Jon, who teaches drama at a college in Buffalo. Although the siblings aren't particularly hostile towards each other, they clearly don't have a close or affectionate relationship.

A health crisis makes it necessary for the two to travel to Sun City, Arizona, to care for their father. We only see Lenny Savage as an old man with dementia. He's not exactly a warm and loving person as the film opens. Moreover, we learn that he wasn't a great parent before the dementia, either. Both his son and his daughter don't keep in touch with him, nor he with them. Now they have to deal with a crisis that forces them together.

Hoffman and Linney are two of he finest actors on the screen today, and, when they play off against each other, the result is movie magic. Everything rings true--their love/hate relationship, their professional jealousy, and their disapproval of each other's love life. They aren't exactly the two people best suited to make life and death decisions about their father, but that's the reality they face, and they have to deal with it as best they can.

I've written almost 200 reviews for IMDb, and I've never even considered mentioning the casting director. This review is the exception. My compliments to Jeanne McCarthy, who has filled this movie with an extraordinary set of actors in small roles. Everyone Wendy and Jon meet looks right for the role--nurses, psychologists, administrators, aides, students, etc., etc. It would be worth seeing the movie again just to watch the actors who aren't stars.

There's also an excellent supporting actor. Peter Friedman plays Larry, the married man with whom Wendy is having an affair. Their scene in a motel room is short but both powerful and poignant. (Actually, every scene in which Linney appears is powerful and poignant, but Friedman holds his own in this one.)

We saw the movie in a theater, but an intimate film of this type should do well on DVD. Incidentally, most of the movie takes place in Buffalo, New York, and director Jenkins obviously has a real feel for the city and its people.

This may be the best independent film of 2007. Don't miss it!

"The Savages", created and directed by Tamara Jenkins, presents us a real human situation, something most movie makers tend to sugar coat for the viewer. Ms. Jenkins, who no doubt has known a similar situation first hand, shows us the indignities a man, at the end of his life, must deal with. In the process, she takes us to meet two siblings who have no idea about how their lives will be changed, and how, at the same time, they will reconnect with their estranged, and dying father.

We meet Lenny at the adult community in Arizona where he's been living with Doris, his long time lover. Lenny has not been close to his two grown up children, after his own marriage to their mother ended. Something snaps in his brain, and suddenly, he starts showing signs he is falling into a dementia, probably caused by Alzheimer's disease. He starts acting up, crating a problem in the assisted living community where he and Doris live. His children, Jon and Wendy, are summoned to help their father after Doris' sudden death.

Jon and Wendy live separate lives. It appears they have grown apart in the years they have been away from home. Jon is a professor at a Buffalo college where he specializes in theater. Wendy, who lives in Manhattan is an aspiring playwright. When they meet, they are appalled at their father's condition. Doris' relatives make it known they have to get him out because they want to sell the apartment.

What to do? Neither one of them has even thought about the probability of being called upon to deal with such a tragedy. They must find a place that will take Lenny right away. Wendy gets a little sample of things to come during the flight back to Buffalo, where Jon has found an affordable nursing home. Wendy's reaction is to ask her brother whether the place reeks of urine, or not.

Nothing has prepared them for what they will have to face in the near future. They are shocked by the conditions they find in the home. The father, in a way, brings them together. Jon, a man with his feet on the ground, knows a lot about his sister's failures as a dramatist and her failed relationship with a married man who only uses her to satisfy his sexual needs.

The beauty of the film is the acting. Philip Seymour Hoffman, perhaps the best actor working in today's movies, plays Jon with such naturalness that the character and the actor become one. Mr. Hoffman displays every nuance this character requires. He is perfect as this man whose own life is not exactly what he probably set out to be. Laura Linney's Wendy is one of the best roles she has been asked to interpret in the movies. She is nothing short of magnificent in her creation of this woman who lives in the fantasy world of the theater that hasn't been too kind to her. The third great performance is the Lenny of Philip Bosco. He is a man whose mind has betrayed him. The rest of the cast does well under Ms. Jenkins' direction.

Anyone with any experience with an older sick family member, has had to deal with the same situation these Savage children are faced with; those who had, will see themselves mirrored in what the young Savages are going through. A visit to a nursing home, no matter whether one that caters to the rich, or to the poor, is an eye opening experience. Most of us forget the indignities of a sick loved one being confined to one of those places. The once independent and carefree souls are left to depend on the kindness of the people that have the misfortune of working in such institutions.

Ms. Jenkins has done wonders with her clear vision of what must be a hard way to deal when health problems change one's life, as one knew it. In spite of the seriousness of what is shown on the screen, "The Savages" is not a downer, on the contrary. Ms. Jenkins' story is never somber because of the lighter tone throughout the movie. At the same time it offers a positive aspect as the brother and the sister rediscover their bond and move forward.

"The Savages" is one of the best films of 2007!