‘The Savages’ is a Play on a Play

By Ben Spanner
Jon Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is scratching out things he wrote on the board just as a student raises her hand. It’s painful the way Jon holds on to the last bit of chalk before turning his attention. Calmly, she asks, “What’s the difference between plot and narrative?”

It’s that moment, far beyond the reach of the opening credits, when I rolled my hands through my hair and understood the nuance behind “The Savages.”

The play, I’m sorry, film, revolves around the lives of brother and sister, Jon and Wendy Savage (Laura Linney). Their father, Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco), has been writing in shit on his walls, plagued with dementia, and has recently lost his girlfriend of 20 years. Estranged from one another, Jon and Wendy travel to Arizona to retrieve their father and to plan the next move.

That is the plot.

The narrative, this dark and steaming pile of leftover baggage, is better. Jon is a university professor who has been working tirelessly on his book. His girlfriend of two years is being forced to leave the country because her Visa is expiring and they can’t get married because “nobody wants that.” His life is a wreck, but he firmly believes no one can help him.

Wendy is having an affair with a married man; an ugly married man. She works in freelance and is shown doing aerobics in front of the television multiple times during the movie. She is sad, and that alternatively makes me sad.

“The Savages” follows these two and rarely leaves their side the entire film. In fact, some could argue that Laura Linney’s character is brought to the front, but I think this is a binary film with Jon and Wendy’s relationship almost symbiotic.

You might have have noticed that I mistakenly called “The Savages” a play (I mean, you know it wasn’t a mistake. I can go back and change it). That’s because I believe it is and I believe it’s because of that feeling that makes it irresistible.

And now, for a stiff shot of post-modernism.

Jon Savage is writing a philosophical book about Bertolt Brecht, German poet and playwright. One of, if not the, shining monolith that Brecht left us with is this notion of “epic theatre” — the structure that allows characters to be seen not as people, but as greater symbols and stereotypes. In that vein, writer and director Tamara Jenkins gives us this brother and sister combination; not uncommon for dramadies like this one. Jenkins then gives us an old man, the common burden to his children, and a sympathetic plot device in order to get Jon and Wendy in the same room.

Now whether or not Tamara Jenkins wants us to believe that Brecht’s play infrastructure is flawed is never up for discussion nor should it ever be. But what she is doing with this film is incredibly interesting as she weaves these characters through the scenes, ripping them apart emotionally and constantly deconstructing these stereotypes we thought we saw when the curtain was pulled back. Even Lenny Savage is more than you believe when he pulls up his hood and turns down his earpiece in the car to avoid the shouting between Jon and Wendy over how their father has completely no idea what’s going on.

Apart from the compelling parallelism between Brecht and “The Savages,” Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman are truly brilliant. It’s a shame people flood to the box office to see big stars in big movies and what’s often overlooked is a smaller film like this who’s actors are so good that they blend into the fabric of the movie instead of sticking out like a Nic Cage or a Tom Cruise. Hoffman and Linney are superb in their approach, obviously highly talented and enough so that you are given the rare chance to relax with them and feel the characters in a way in which that joy is sometimes robbed from the viewer. Linney’s quite raw existentialism is happening in every frame and Hoffman’s character’s baggage is heaved into every conversation. And even though the character of Lenny Savage isn’t what really drives this film, Philip Bosco’s shy sensationalism steals some scenes right out from under the two.

“The Savages” is slow and smooth. It’s commanding but not overbearing. It’s indie but not dismissive. It’s a movie, but it’s theatre.

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Contact Ben at bspanner@graffitiwv.com