Noble Savages

E pointed out that if we had watched The Savages before The Darjeeling Limited we could not have enjoyed The Darjeeling Limited. 

She’s right. Compared to the Savages, which tells the story of two adult children putting their father in a nursing home, the Darjeeling Limited feels just feckless.  People talk about a death, but no one grieves. People claim to be on a journey, but it feels like a prank.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes the Savages so good, but it’s easy to see when you compare it to other movies.

Compare the Phillip Seymour Hoffman professorial character to the Dennis Quaid professorial character in Smart People. The Quaid character, though no fault of his own, fits Pauline Kael’s definition of a caricature: a character with the responses built in.  Oh, I bet that curmudgeon isn’t such a curmudgeon by the end of the movie, dontcha know.

Watch the scene where Phillip Seymour Hoffman has his chin in a sling, And here you see what separates the Savages from a kind of adolescent, video game inspired moviemaking in which ratcheting up conflict seems to be the point.   

Watch the scene in the “nicer” nursing home parking lot where the Laura Linney character explains why she wants their father to be admitted, then Hoffman explains why she’s full of shit, and then reality chastens Hoffman.

I want to call The Savages grown up, but that’s like saying it has plenty of riboflavin.  It's better than that. It's funnier than that.

God, I hope I haven't overpraised it.   

And isn't Laura Linney the most underracted actress in America?

Comments

[Mandy]

You know, I haven't seen it, but I love Hoffman in everything. Did you see him in Punchdrunk Love? Just a small part but so good.

[K]

You're right: I also like, if I remember correctly, anything that Phillip Seymour Hoffman is in: Capote, Magnolia, Charlie Roses's War, and a couple of smaller movies, one about a guy addicted to gas fumes, which would have been really hard to watch if it had not been for him.

[E]

That's Charlie Wilson's War. As per his contract with PBS, Charlie Rose must remain ostentatiously neutral.

[Carolyn]

Oh, I have to see this! I loved PSH in THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.