The Savages: Critic Reviews

The Savages is terrific -- a movie of uncommon appreciation for the nature and nurture that go into making us who we are, a perfectly calibrated drama both compassionate and unsentimental.

Tamara Jenkins's The Savages is a beautifully nuanced tragicomedy about two floundering souls.

Tamara Jenkins' writing and direction are superb.

One of those genre-defying hybrids that are sometimes called dramedies, The Savages tiptoes along a particularly fraught emotional tightrope, balancing observant humor and deep sadness with uncommon grace.

Smartly written and beautifully played.

The movie also comes with the wistful sadness of a maturing filmmaker who understands that in matters of death, sorrow and black comedy often walk hand in hand.

The actors have found mutual subcurrents to their characters that project familial affection even when they are at each other's throats.

The Savages is a delightful movie -- the perfect companion piece (and antidote) to the year's other superb convalescent-dementia picture, Away From Her.

Vital, honest, and engaging.

Both Linney and Hoffman are so specific in creating these characters that we see them as people, not elements in a plot.

Assured and sharp, The Savages is only Jenkins' second feature-length film. You'd never know it.

Tamara Jenkins returns with a story that squarely addresses the concerns of middle age, treating them with the gravity they deserve but also the forbearance and humor they often demand.

Its astringent humor is not funny ha-ha, it's funny-ouch.

The film is savagely funny about the indignities of old age, yet optimistic that it's never too late to have a happy childhood.

Powerful, painful and yet unerringly funny as it points out our emotional and physical vulnerabilities, this is a film that finds the humor in tragedy while keeping both omnipresent.

Although the story may sound as dismal as Buffalo's weather, it's surprisingly funny. Not gag funny, but observation funny -- the absurdities of real life, seen and presented.

To everyone's credit, this film faces these issues bravely and humorously, eschewing any hint of emotional manipulation.

Tamara Jenkins excels more at maximizing individual moments here than at developing a meaty storyline. But a great many of the moments are choice.

Darkly hilarious, Tamara Jenkins' The Savages captures the cruel demographic joke facing many boomers who are forced to take care of aging parents at a point when they haven't entirely figured out their own lives.

The dynamic that operates throughout this film is fantasy versus reality, not just in the lives of the characters but in American life in general.

It's billed as a comedy. You may or may not find much to laugh at.

Tamara Jenkins' 'The Savages': Laura Linney, The Most Overlooked Great Gctress of Her Generation, Soars with Authenticity