The Savages (2007)
Directed by Tamara Jenkins
A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.
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What critics compared The Savages to
This is a story of stunted adult children and dying elders in which Jon and Wendy's raging and increasingly confused father, Lenny played by Philip Bosco with huffing dignity selects The Jazz Singer when it's his turn to choose at the nursing home's regular movie night, obliviously alienating the predominantly black staff who change his diapers.
The film’s 113-minute runtime is just too long for what amounts to a straightforward tale about two siblings and their dying father, and though random scenes – like the one in which Lenny hosts a movie night of “The Jazz Singer” at the predominantly black-run nursing home – are darkly comical, they’re completely unessential to the story.
I do wonder about the humour inherent in an old broad dropping dead while getting her nails done, or the pathos of a nursing home screening of The Jazz Singer that results in the predictable disapproval of this film's plebeians (blacks) at that film's blackface performances--yet for every comedic situation that's beneath them, there are several more of Linney and Hoffman knocking a line delivery out of the park.
Lenny treats other residents to Al Jolson's “The Jazz Singer” even though most of the care staff is black.
It thinks we’d be more interested in watching Wendy and Jon zone out on stolen Percocet, or moderate the responses of African Americans to Al Jolson’s blackface routine from The Jazz Singer.
Director Jenkins is a master of the awkward moment, from Jon and Wendy’s premature grazing at the snack table at a support group to the nursing-home screening of “The Jazz Singer,” which is a hit with Lenny but more than a bit awkward for the facility’s many African-American residents.
Written and directed by Tamara Jenkins (“The Savages”) with a wry and delicate touch.
The Father feels like the best opportunity since 2007's excellent The Savages to empathize with a segment of our society…