The last thing the two Savage siblings ever wanted to do was look back at their difficult family history. Having wriggled their way out from beneath their father's domineering thumb, they are now firmly cocooned in their own complicated lives. Wendy (
Laura Linney) is a struggling East Village playwright, AKA a temp who spends her days applying for grants, stealing office supplies and dating her very married neighbor. Jon (
Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a neurotic college professor writing books on obscure subjects in Buffalo. Then comes the call that informs them that the father they have long feared and avoided, Lenny Savage (
Philip Bosco), is slowly being consumed by dementia and they are the only ones that can help.
Now, as they put their already arrested lives on hold, Wendy and Jon are forced to live together under one roof for the first time since childhood, rediscovering the eccentricities that drove each other crazy. Faced with complete upheaval and battling over how to handle their father's final days, they are confronted with what adulthood, family and, most surprisingly, each other are really about.
A very funny movie about sibling relationships. The actors had great chemistry. Linney gives another fine performance. I real gem of a flick!
I believe on every level this was a finely crafted work. The thoughtfully fashioned storyline slowly revealed the relationship and characters of the brother and sister, as they stuggled to deal with the crises. Everything that evolved seemed to spring naturally from their individual personalities and the nature of that relationship. The secondary characters were also fully developed and believable. Tamara Jenkins is clearly a talent who's future work I will looking forward to viewing.
4 Stars. Laura Linney was great.