Best quote of last night, thank you Philip Seymour Hoffmann and the writer/director of "The Savages", Tamara Jenkins.
This film is a genuine story of brother and sister (Philip Seymour Hoffmann and Laura Linney) taking care of their absent father, who has recently lost his long-time girlfriend in Sun City, Arizona. He's also developed dementia, which prompts the brother and sister to move him closer to where they live, which is New York. PSH plays an over-forty Theater of the Absurd professor in Buffalo, New York. Linney plays a freelance playwright living in NYC, desperate to publish and create her subversive stage piece, based on her childhood.
You can easily imagine each of them as these characters, wanting to escape into the wit and sarcasm of theater. Each of them disturbed by their father's mix of neglect and absence during their young life. They both have strange and strained love lives. Neither of them has their lives together. And the barbs they throw at each other finely walks the line between sarcastic jabs and competition.
There are so many simple, yet beautiful moments in this movie. The father wanting to fall asleep to the lava lamp. The sister asking her brother to stop fussing with paperwork. The sister taking her lover's dog on a run. But it does not hit you over the head with saccharin family relations. There is no mention of the word "love". There are great moments of raw honesty. The brother yelling at his sister's guilt-ridden actions and showing nursing homes for what they are. The family of the father's girlfriend acting self-righteous.
And the best parts: pure comedy. The black employees of the nursing home reacting to the blackface portions of "The Jazz Singer". Seeing PSH in traction, trying to eat bread and read mail. The sweet siren-like music played over the montage of Sun City, Arizona, golf carts et al.
Go see this movie. You will be pleasantly surprised by the depth, honesty, and excellent writing.