There is a sad moment in every adult’s life when their parents are unable to care for themselves and the role of the carer is reversed. It’s a hard situation made harder if you don’t particularly like your parents: how do you deal with the heavy burden of a person who did nothing but neglect and abuse you?
That is the premise behind Tamara Jenkins’ second feature. It’s a depressing subject that could have become a soul destroying film, but instead, we’re treated to brilliantly subtle performances, wonderful direction and a healthy dose of black humour that doesn’t compromise the serious subject matter.
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney are estranged siblings Jon and Wendy Savage, who are completely obsessed with their own lives. He’s an academic who can’t commit to his long-term Polish girlfriend even though she’s about to be deported; she’s an aspiring playwright who temps and steals stationary while having an affair with a married neighbour.
It’s their father Lenny’s (a brilliant Philip Bosco) illness that throws the pair together, as his lewd toilet behaviour combined with his partner’s death spells the end of his term in a posh neighbourhood. As tough situations arise, we’re never told what he did to them or their mother to make her run off – there are no dramatic reflections, confessions or speeches – Jenkins simply lets the acting do the talking, successfully enough that the details of what Lenny may or may not have done seem scarcely relevant. Unsurprisingly, there’s no happy ending, but you’ll be glad that we leave the Savages a little more content then we found them.
