Gli utlimi film visti sono tre.

L’enfer di Danis Tanovic. Non ne parlo perché mi ha fatto schifo e non ha alcun riscontro nella mia vita reale.

Savages di Tamara Jenkins, ci è piaciuto molto, come Happiness, di cui parlammo poco tempo fa, in entrambi i film c’è l’attore Philip Seymour Hoffman, bravissimo, interpreta sempre personaggi diversi fra loro, gli riescono molto bene, lo avevamo già apprezzato anche in Truman Capote.

Calore e polvere, di James Ivory, ambientato nell’India coloniale. Avrei dovuto dire due film e mezzo, perché questo lo abbiamo lasciato a metà, quanto basta per arrivare a odiare i coloni inglesi, per appassionarsi discretamente alla vicenda della bella Olivia, per poi essere colti da un colpo di sonno, senza quindi arrivare a scoprire perché Olivia fosse scappata dall’ospedale indiano (qualsiasi cosa fosse, sarei scappato anch’io).

These girls can out-run you, out-swim you; shut you down in a game of full-court b-ball, ski faster and jump higher than you ever will. They have physical prowess in their respective sport, and unlike 99% of the other girls in their league are incredibly nice to look at!

 Without further ado, here are the Top 10 Sexiest Female Athletes of 2009

 World’s Sexiest Female Athletes 

10. Lokelani McMichael

9. Gabrielle Reece

8. Nikki McCray

7. Fabiola da Silva

6. Tamara Jenkins

5. Tatiana Gregorieva

4. Amy Acuff

3. Jeannette Lee

2. Marion Jones

1. Anna Kournikova

I really enjoyed ‘The Savages’ , written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. You can tell it’s an independent movie because it deals with death in an intelligent way without resorting to cheap sentiment.

This quite an achievement because the family centred storyline has plenty of potential for mawkish clichès.  An estranged son and daughter have to decide what to do with their dying father.

The movie is simply a humane and honest study of ordinary characters faced with mundane but emotional stressful choices. It centres mainly on Wendy Savage  (Laura Linney) and her brother Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman)  made believable by the brilliance of these two actors.

They are two flawed and fragile personalities who try to put on a front of being in control and successful but really flailing around trying to get their lives on track.

The absence of parental guidance is a key theme coupled with strong hints of the father physically  abused them when they were children. The full extent of this violence is not spelled out and the father (Philip Bosco), suffering from dementia, is portrayed a tough character but far from being a monster.

These are normal disfunctional lives and my admiration for Philip Seymour Hoffman grows with every film I see of his. He’s one of those actors that seems so natural in the varied roles he chooses.

He is particularly gifted at showing a kind of dignified vulnerabilty and one of those few  actors who convince you that it takes a special strength for men to cry in public and he’s a great role model to prove that the damage to be done by indoctrinating kids with the ‘boy’s don’t cry’ message.

Hollywood would have made a pig’s ear of this storyline. I feel sure, for example, that they  would have set up some over the top death bed scene. Here he passes away while the son and daughter are sleeping. “Is that it?” asks Wendy. “Yes”, replies Jon.

Sometimes, death, like life, can be painfully banal.

Wendy和哥哥Jon有個不快樂的童年,特別哥哥還被燥父謔打, 人到中年兩兄妹的生活感情事業并不如意,有一天父親同居廿十多年的女友去世, 其家人要Wendy 和Jon兩兄妹領回父親. 兩兄妹開始為父親找老人院, 在這段日里,久無聯絡的兩兄妹住在一起,互相文流生活的體會,寫作的進展,生活感情的問題, 面對患老人痴呆症老父的無奈和內疚. 和面對死亡的無奈與恐懼. 很寫實豐富的生活小品,內容深刻,使人感觸,但又不嘩眾取寵,平實但結尾還是很正面的生活態度. 兩兄妹在老父去世後互相鼓勵努力的生活著.

A cousin to 2006’s Away from Her (reviewed previously on this site), The Savages (PC rating: 4/5) deals with the suffering and ambiguity of caring for the elderly and the infirm, although here the focus shifts to the children, rather than the spouse. And that, as it turns out, makes for quite a different film, for while Away from Her is a mild, meditative movie, The Savages is more wry and ironic, observing how the children (played by arguably the two best actors in film today, Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman) struggle to move forward, even as their father’s illness forces them to look backward. In the process, it becomes clear that writer-director Tamara Jenkins does not want the story to drift into melodrama–an understandable concern–and yet her reluctance to dig into the weighty questions thrown up by the film’s plot ultimately makes The Savages less memorable than its Canadian relative.

The Savages is the type of film people don’t actually enjoy, but rave about nonetheless. Now, I’m not saying here that it isn’t well written (it is) nor well acted (it is), but that it is akin to watching a poignant painting dry.  The film is unnervingly slow and one wonders if anything valuable will come about from the painstakingly placed strokes. To writer/director Tamara Jenkins’s credit, something does evolve. And to her further credit, that something is pretty close to truth. That is, we should unabashedly do the things we love, go after the people we love, and fight hard for grace.

This said, one may question why I’m not more enthralled about this film; honestly, it’s because I didn’t enjoy it very much. Yes, life is hard and full of angst, but when I watch a movie I generally want to be pulled into a world where that truth is perhaps a little less evident.

2007: The Savages di Tamara Jenkins

“Tamara Jenkins ha scritto col cuore e la testa, senza che mai la retorica offuschi la vista. Una lezione di umanità” (La Stampa), “…un film notevole” (L‘Unità), “…il talento della Jenkins sta nella sua abilità di narratrice, nel delineare magnificamente i personaggi” (Il Manifesto), “…un bel film, magnificamente interpretato” (Repubblica).

Raramente l’entusiasmo della critica è stato così giustificato.
Tamara Jenkins, formatasi al Sundance Institute, e con un curriculum di tutto rispetto in campo teatrale a New York, al suo quinto film firma il suo capolavoro. Un vero e proprio piccolo gioiello questo La famiglia Savage, che giustamente ha mietuto premi e nomination un po’ ovunque.
Apprezzabile che sia un’americana ad affrontare temi impopolari come la morte, la vecchiaia, la solitudine, la depressione… veri e propri tabù per una società che fa dell’apparenza della felicità dell’ottimismo a tutti i costi i propri idoli. La regista affronta il tutto con un equilibrio, una misura, una discrezione encomiabili, rifuggendo dal sentimentalismo e dal sensazionalismo.
Psicologie approfondite al massimo, personaggi profondamente umani in cui è impossibile non riconoscersi, ritratto sincero ed emozionante di esistenze complesse e contraddittorie… e quindi vere.
Una sceneggiatura che brilla per sensibilità e intelligenza (che coinvolge e non consente un attimo di distrazione), una regia completamente al servizio della storia narrata (senza inutili virtuosismi), una prestazione attoriale da dieci e lode che vede l’illustre trio (Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco) gareggiare in una eccezionale gara di bravura.
Un film che invita alla riflessione, un film che -nonostante i temi affrontati- lancia un credibile e verosimile messaggio positivo.

Pubblicato su Cineocchio
tuttelerecensioni

Regia: Tamara Jenkins
Sceneggiatura: Tamara Jenkins
Cast: Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Cara Seymour, David Zayas, Guy Boyd, Margo Martindale, Salem Ludwig, Debra Monk, Hal Blankenship, Sidné Anderson, Michael Blackson, Joan Jaffe, Tonye Patano, Alyssa Waldrip
Paese: USA 2007
Genere: Drammatico
Durata: 113’
Uscita Italia: 25 Gennaio 2008
Uscita USA: 28 Novembre 2007
Trama:
I due fratelli Savage hanno costruito a fatica un bozzolo protettivo attorno alle proprie vite complicate. Ma ecco arrivare una telefonata, da cui apprendono che il padre Lenny, così a lungo temuto ed evitato, sta lentamente sprofondando nella demenza ed essi sono gli unici a poterlo aiutare.
Note:
Il film è stato premiato agli AFI Awards, al Flanders International Film Festival, al Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, agli Independent Spirit Awards. Premi inoltre dal San Francisco Film Critics Circle, dai Sant Jordi Awards, dalla National Society of Film Critics, dalla Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

I recommend a movie almost every Monday, and you recommend one to me! I make every effort to find and view your recommendation.

(This week I’m going old school a bit, and re-visiting a format I used before Movie Monday became commonplace at VIL. It helps me focus and makes it easier for you to get the information you want. The format is basically points by title: Director, Starring actors, In General, etc.)

This week I recommend *The Savages*.
Directed by: Tamara Jenkins
Starring: Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

In General: Very sweet and stark and true. Linney and Hoffman are two of my favourite actors, so of course I die to see them every chance I get.

What I Like: The interactions between Linney and Hoffman are my favourite, and to see them on screen together is always a treat. They play characters with extremely different personalities, so it’s interesting to watch their different reactions — one who keeps it all inside and explodes from time to time, and one who freaks the fuck out and gets hysterical over the smallest issue. I like that you don’t really know much about their pasts, their family life and interactions. You get a general idea, because Wendy says that their parents were not very great at being parents, but you never know what actually happened at home. There are no flashbacks, and flashbacks are always tricky and can be extremely bad for a film if done poorly. One of the last scenes shows a portion of a play that Wendy has written, and we see a bit of what life with Lenny as a father may have been like. I really love that Wendy usually communicates with/at Jon by yelling through walls, so some very serious scenes become very comical because of the sharp voice she projects.

What I Would Do Differently: Hmmm, there was nothing that really bothered me at all, and so there’s nothing I can think of changing. Maybe stupid things like what she buys for her father’s room. I do like the lava lamp, though…

Memorable Quote: “Maybe dad didn’t abandon us. Maybe he just forgot who we were.” -Wendy Savage

Rating: VVVV

***
image from Collider.

When Lenny Savage’s wife dies, he is thrust upon his two wayward, screwed up children. By then the family has grown apart and resentment is all that remains in this tragi-comedy. However, his kids, played excellently by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney are forced to overcome their resentment and finally start living like adults. JJ

Director Tamara Jenkins made audiences sit for nearly a decade for her follow-up to the hilarious dark comedy SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS, but it’s been worth the wait. Like her previous film, THE SAVAGES is a sometimes-funny, sometimes-sad…

É impressionante como é perceptível quando um filme é dirigido por uma mulher. Sabe aquele velho cliché mais emoção que razão? [Feministas me bombardeiem!!!] Esclarecendo, emoção sem pieguice e o mais natural possível. O clima do filme é vida real mesmooo e este é o seu grande diferencial!

Muita sensibilidade na direção deste filme de Tamara Jenkins que tem como principal tema a velhice. Dois filhos adultos recebem a missão de cuidar do pai idoso com sintomas de demência e do qual não foi muito digno em sua criação para com eles.  Laura Linney tem subido no meu ranking de atrizes promissoras e Philip Seymour Hoffman óteeemo como sempre, são os tais filhos que arrasaaaaaam nas atuações.  Destaque também ao roteiro com super diálogos cheio de referências artísticas.

It’s been a long, long time since I saw a movie that made me squirm. Alot of squirming. And if you didn’t know better, with a name like “The Savages” and talk of squirming, you’d think this was some horror movie. You wouldn’t be that far off…the reality of aging parents being a heavy and possibly terrifying topic. And its the very reality of it that is so perfectly captured.

The American culture has struggled with this and been picked on for it: how we treat our elderly. What we don’t see in this movie, and barely ever get, is the history of The Savages. We learn, early on, that Jon and Wendy have reason to resent their father…but that’s all we ever get. And in doing so, all we really garner is that these choices and decisions they have to make, while attempting to respect any of the father’s feelings, come with an extra bite. It’s not just a matter of how we do treat our elders, or how we are supposed to. It’s the feelings that get associated with it. Actions, of course, speak loudest. But the turmoil surrounding those actions is what this movie focuses on, and what I believe adds the real power to it.

The movie, while focused around the present life of Lenny Savage (the father), we see it through the eyes of Jon and Wendy. They attempt to balance their father’s needs with their own issues currently going on in their life. It’s hard to grasp the relationship the two of them have. You get the feeling the siblings haven’t spoken in a while, or aren’t very close, as they catch up in very matter-of-fact ways about large events in life. Wendy is more open, and seems to be struggling with the choices before them far more then Jon. We get glimpses of Jon’s pain, but we don’t even always know what is really getting him. But when Jon speaks, he is blunt, not sugar coating things for his father. You just get the sense that his tough-man face gets overwhelmed once in a while. What seems to bring them together is having to find appropriate accommodations for their father, and their unsatisfactory experiences in the middle of their lives. Wendy…wants to be the opposite of Jon . A climatic quote:

Jon Savage: Dad’s not the one that has a problem with the Valley View. There’s nothing wrong with Dad’s situation. Dad’s situation is fine. He’s never gonna adjust to it if we keep yanking him outta there. And, actually, this upward mobility fixation of yours, it’s counterproductive and, frankly, pretty selfish. Because it’s not about Dad, it’s about you and your guilt. That’s what these places prey upon.
Wendy Savage: I happen to think it’s nicer here.
Jon Savage: Of course you do, because you are the consumer they want to target. You are the guilty demographic. The landscaping, the neighborhoods of care; they’re not for the residents, they’re for the relatives. People like you and me who don’t want to admit to what’s really going on here.
Wendy Savage: Which is what, Jon?
Jon Savage: People are dying, Wendy! Right inside that beautiful building right now, it’s a fucking horror show! And all this wellness propaganda and the landscaping, it’s just there to obscure the miserable fact that people die! And death is gaseous and gruesome and it’s filled with shit and piss and rotten stink!

Whether or not Jon is being fair, there is an accuracy to his statement that is undeniable. And thus, the awkwardness in the movie. It’s a whole movie devoted to pointing at the elephant in the room that everyone would be far more content to pretend isn’t there, or atleast pretend the elephant is something far more elegant.

In an early scene, Wendy undoes Lenny’s suspenders, trying to make him look more decent. In doing so, she only sets herself up more for embarrassment in a following scene. Yet her attempts are noble, and is the only one putting forth attempts. Jon, as the above lines show, to him his father has already become an afterthought. That seems to be how he has coped.

In another scene, in order to get into a higher-functioning home, Wendy attempts to help her father cheat on a verbal test to see how bad his dementia is. She justifies this in all sorts of ways…he’s better on other days, it will get him into a “nicer” facility, but as we see again and again, she continues to set up her father for failure. Meanwhile, Jon hurts his father deeply in the way he just tries to approach with a business demeanor. When asking if he wants tubes if in a coma, the father is quite put off by his way of questioning. But it also leads us to an inevitable truh that seems to be the thesis, life is pain.

There is seemingly no hope found within this movie. The characters we find are all struggling. And of course they are…what interest would a movie be without strife? But where is the upside? Where are those moments of uplifting hope. We find them at laughing at life’s absurdness, such as Jon’s incredible device for fixing neck pains. And in what I consider the most painful scene in the entire film, I find myself most often as Lenny, wanting to turn off our hearing aids and shut out the world. And in the movie, we watch these characters assess options, try to open doors, and try to find happiness…and it all too often ends the same way, and none of the options seem to bring anything hopeful.

But very notable, is the ending. Without spoiling anything, in the end, there is hope. There is moving forward, as painful as it may have been to get in that direction. And hell, who knows? Maybe it isn’t even moving forward, but there isn’t this stagnancy that runs rampid throughout the movie. And that is a great final message to leave with in a film such at this. Where it is all too easy to empathize with all of these characters, and I still find myself squirming just thinking of some of the scenes, (Lenny’s movie night, anyone?) I know that life moves forward, ready or not. And there are not perfect answer and perfect solutions in real situations. One cannot erase grudges, one cannot force bonding and love. One can not improve their own situation or other situations simply by trying to pretend they are different then what they are. And one can not improve their situation by just pretending they are tougher and above the situations they are in. The reality of burdens will always catch up.

Wendy Savage: Maybe dad didn’t abandon us. Maybe he just forgot who we were.

Maybe…maybe…the world may never know.

But the movie has a raw power to it that I haven’t seen in a while. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney and Philip Bosco perform their parts brilliantly, along with the rest of the supporting cast. The settings, both interior and seasonal exteriors, set the perfect tones for all the scenes to come. And while its hard to say I really “enjoyed” the film, it is one of the best movies I have seen in the past year.

When you set out to write something that matters to you, it always seems that the first thing to go is the idea of telling a story that no one has told before. I’m not saying that every detail of every story is the same (they’re like snowflakes in that way), but the basic plots still seem to repeat themselves over and over. I’ve set a goal over the next couple of years to write a novel, but the actual act of doing the writing isn’t what scares me; it’s coming up with a plot that’s smart and relevant and hasn’t been trod a thousand times before.

The Savages has that plot. And if nothing else, Tamara Jenkins, the writer/director of the film, should be immensely proud of that fact. No one before Jenkins has made the film that seems so obvious given the number of people going through it each day: the endless war of attrition that is dealing with a sick, aging parent in America.

The Savages stars Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Wendy and Jon Savage, brother and sister. They’re both enamored of theater; she’s an aspiring playwright, while he’s a Buffalo academic writing a book on Bertolt Brecht. This aspect could have been badly handled from the start, but Jenkins wisely chooses to avoid the concept of theatrics in relation to the siblings’ actual crisis. That would be the dementia of their elderly father (Philip Bosco); when his longtime girlfriend dies and her family evicts them from the house, the siblings Savage are forced to deal with finding care for their father, from whom they’ve long been estranged (it’s implied that he abused them).

The estrangement thing is another cleverly avoided pitfall that could not be executed more simply: Bosco is just too far gone mentally to have a series of histrionic “You never loved me” scenes, and the childhood experience is dealt with quietly and sadly. Instead of being a constant source of tension because of his past, Bosco is really something of a shell, his self only surfacing from time to time, and not in the ways the siblings want. And so the story becomes much richer; Jon and Wendy have to take care not of the father they’ve steeled themselves against, but of a lost, dissolute version. And that makes their emotions about the situation infinitely more complicated. While Hoffman shuts down, placing Bosco in a comparatively modest facility, Linney, racked with guilt, tries to get him into a more elite nursing home. The interview goes disastrously; it has shades of overanxious parents trying to get their kid into a right kindergarten, and when it’s over, Hoffman blows up. I couldn’t find a clip, but here’s his speech:

Jon Savage:
Dad’s not the one that has a problem with the Valley View. There’s nothing wrong with Dad’s situation. Dad’s situation is fine. He’s never gonna adjust to it if we keep yanking him outta there. And, actually, this upward mobility fixation of yours, it’s counterproductive and, frankly, pretty selfish. Because it’s not about Dad, it’s about you and your guilt. That’s what these places prey upon.

Wendy Savage:
I happen to think it’s nicer here.

Jon Savage:
Of course you do, because you are the consumer they want to target. You are the guilty demographic. The landscaping, the neighborhoods of care; they’re not for the residents, they’re for the relatives. People like you and me who don’t want to admit to what’s really going on here.

Wendy Savage:
Which is what, Jon?

Jon Savage:
People are dying, Wendy! Right inside that beautiful building right now, it’s a fucking horror show! And all this wellness propaganda and the landscaping, it’s just there to obscure the miserable fact that people die! And death is gaseous and gruesome and it’s filled with shit and piss and rotten stink!

In one of the movie’s funniest moments, Hoffman abruptly cuts off this speech when he sees an orderly gently rolling an elderly woman in a wheelchair out for a walk.

And I think that’s what really elevates The Savages from other dealing-with-parental-problems stories: it’s deeply, darkly funny. Every time the grimness of the situation gets too out of control, Jenkins throws in a lovely counterpoint of wit. Another great example is a scene where the siblings try to help their father regain his memory by screening old movies he liked at the nursing home. The film turns out to feature a scene with blackface, offending everyone in the room; the good deed is decidedly punished.

Much was made in reviews of the film that the Savage siblings are abject failures. While they do have some obvious personal problems (they are not professionally or romantically successful, and Wendy seems to have a mild tendency towards compulsive lying), I think the “F word” seems to be a little harsh. They are conflicted people, aiming to do their best, and while failure is a part of that, they’re still bright and concerned. I don’t necessarily think that their failure is even supposed to be the heart of the film.

The failure that really concerns The Savages, and the one that I think will make the film an enduring one, is the American medical system’s need to keep the elderly alive at any cost. It’s an issue the Savage family has to face as their father approaches the end of his life, and the film is boldfaced about the inhumanity of growing old in America, the way that personal and religious guilt make the end of life a place of infinitely more suffering than it needs to be.

Towards the end of the film, Linney’s married lover has come to tell her that he is going to put down his beloved old dog; her hip problems have been painful for her, and if she gets the needed surgery, the recuperation will be long and arduous. At scene’s end, Linney asks him if he can do her a favor, and in the film’s final shot, we see her running by the river, encouraging the old dog to follow as her back legs are pinned to wheels.

This image has not left my mind since I saw the film, and as we face a generation of baby boomers who will age in ever-more-taxing ways, I wonder how often I’ll keep thinking of the dog on wheels.

A veces la vida se convierte en un precario carrusel de feria que avanza sin cesar, dando siempre da las mismas vueltas, una y otra vez. Hasta que algo sucede. Una olvidada pieza del viejo engranaje ya no funciona y el carrusel amenaza con venirse abajo. Para evitarlo, es necesario reparar varias partes. Y seguir andando. Así es la vida de los hermanos Savage. En un momento dado deben detenerse para mirar al pasado y tratar de comprender lo que les sucede en el presente. El padre de ambos padece de demencia y debe ser recluido en un asilo de ancianos. Alguien tiene que ocuparse del viejo, aunque ninguno de los dos sea capaz de ocuparse de si mismos. Los Savage no parecen una familia. Es un grupo de seres disfuncionales marcados por la inseguridad, la neurosis y la insatisfacción. Con tales personajes la directora y guionista Tamara Jenkins ha construido La familia Savage, un film sobre las cosas importantes de la vida que se descubren de vez en cuando. Quizá sea la mejor película del reciente Festival de Cine Independiente de EEUU.

Este segunda largometraje de Jenkins posee la virtud de eludir el campo del heroismo de las historias extraordinarias para dedicarse a comprender y expresar a personajes de la cotidianidad, a través de un guión minucioso que explora emociones y esperanzas. Por eso comienza con una escena donde un grupo de ancianos bailan —en una extraña coreografía que tiene mucho de surreal— en una muy soleada urbanización de una también muy soleada ciudad llamada —¿de qué otra manera?— Sun City, en pleno desierto de Arizona. Ancianos que bailan, practican golf y hace vida social al compás de I’m in Heaven. Todos parecen estar en el cielo pero la realidad suele ser más brutal. En la ciudad de Nueva York —con muy poco sol— Wendy Savage, una trabajadora de tiempo parcial, utiliza subrepticiamente los recursos de la oficina que la ha contratado para enviar su obra de teatro a distintas fundaciones culturales para obtener una beca. Vive sola con su gato y un ficus y de vez en cuando se deja visitar sexualmente por un vecino casado. En Buffalo, en el mismo estado de Nueva York, Jon Savage es profesor universitario de drama y literatura e intenta escribir un ensayo sobre Bertoldt Brecht, de quien parece tomar prestado el método del distanciamiento para no concretar su compromiso con la novia polaca que abandona EEUU pues su visa se ha vencido. Solitarios y fracasados, los hermanos Savage viven la crisis de la edad mediana.

Jon y Wendy configuran una extraña relación pocas veces presentada en el cine: dos hermanos, varón y hembra, que no pueden relacionarse en el presente pero comparten un pasado en el que la madre abandona a la familia y el padre se hace cargo de la educación de los chicos de una forma dura y cruel. Ninguno quiere vivir con los otros pero todos tienen que hacerlo. Esos lazos familiares afloran desde el olvido y les ofrece una nueva oportunidad para reparar las piezas gastadas de sus respectivos carruseles. Esta especie de Hansel y Gretel urbana y contemporáneamente dura permite a la directora hurgar en el alma de sus dos tristes personajes para extraerles nuevas emociones y nuevas posibilidades de reconstruir sus vidas. Lo hace desde una perspectiva que contrasta el drama de sus vidas con el humor negro que se desprende de sus diálogos. Tal vez por ello La familia Savage no termina siendo una película triste como sus personajes sino esperanzadora como la idea misma de superar los miedos íntimos.

La selección de Laura Linney y Philp Symour Hoffman no pudo ser mejor. Dos intérpretes de calibre que evaden los clichés y construyen desde adentro a estos dos hermanos condenados a rescatarse. Cada mirada y cada lágrima, cada sonrisa y cada grito, son elementos expresivos que dibujan la evolución de unos personajes necesariamente complejos y a ratos contradictorios. Sobre todo porque ambos están vinculados con el teatro, la creación y el manejo de conceptos artísticos mientras pretenden apartarse de la realidad sin esperanza alguna. Con este segundo largometraje, la señora Jenkins se convierte en una realizadora importante en el panorama creativo de su país.

LA FAMILIA SAVAGE (“The Savages”), EEUU, 2007. Dirección y guión: Tamara Jenkins. Producción: Ted Hope, Anne Carey y Erica Westheimer. Fotografía: Mott Hupfel. Montaje: Brian A. Kates. Música: Stephen Trask. Elenco: Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Cara Seymour, Peter Friedman, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Tonye Patano, Guy Boyd , David Zayas, Debra Monk. Distribución: Cines Unidos.

Sometimes you see a movie that resonates with life. I recently saw such a movie, The Savages, directed by Tamara Jenkins and starring Laura Linney as Wendy, Philip Seymour Hoffman as her brother, Jon, and Philip Bosco and their elderly father, Lenny, who is descending into the bottomless pit of dementia.

The family was never a happy one and Wendy and Jon have both gone their separate ways and have not seen their abusive father for years when they are called upon to deal with his sudden homelessness (his aged girlfriend dies). Despite their unresolved anger toward their father for his earlier treatment, they take on the burden of care, which in this case is placing him in a nursing home.

Living Will, Living Well: Reflections on Preparing an Advance Directive by Dianne Godkin

I found one scene in the film particularly poignant. It takes place in a diner where Wendy and Jon are attempting to have a conversation with Lenny about an advance directive (living will). Wendy is struggling with the conversation and is confusing Lenny as she is reluctant to ask direct questions: what do you want us to do with your body when you die and do you want to be maintained on life support? Jon has much less trouble expressing himself, and when he sees Lenny does not understand Wendy’s approach he says something like Do you want us to pull the plug?

These are real issues for real people and through our work with clinical ethicist Dianne Godkin we are trying to help people deal with these emotional topics. While the University of Alberta Press was preparing to publish her book, Living Will, Living Well: Reflections on Preparing an Advance Directive, I sat with Dianne and we talked about her motivation for writing the book.

She said that one of the most difficult aspects of her work and those of other medical professionals is dealing with family when there have not been any conversations prior to either life-support decisions or death for a cherished family member. Everyone is in a highly emotional state and it is tough to make important decisions. Often, in addition to grief, there is anger and hurt feelings just when people need each other the most. However, there is a way to mitigate the stress: Communication among family members in advance can help to ensure a person’s wishes are honoured and those left behind can feel some solace in having eased the mind of their loved one.

There is no Hollywood happy ending in The Savages; however, there is some healing and closure. I recommend the film for its complexity, humanity, and truthfulness.

~ Linda

Un’altra giovinezza di Francis Ford Coppola. Un tizio che arrivato ad un passo dalla demenza senile si vorrebbe suicidare ma viene colpito da un fulmine e di colpo inizia a ringiovanire. Je piacerebbe. Al nostro Francis che si è autoprodotto (e quindi in pratica aveva carta bianca) perdoniamo alcuni passaggi confusi perchè ci regala una fotografia bellissima e paesaggi mozzafiato. Tim Roth è un mostro di bravura.

L’altra faccia di Beverly Hills di Tamara Jenkins. Opera prima che risale ad un po’ di tempo fa. Un godibilissimo racconto di una sagace ragazza alla prese con i problemi adolescenziali e una verginità di cui vuole liberarsi al più presto. Dinamiche famigliari tumultuose ambientate poco lontane dalle villone delle celebrità, in un periodo poco successivo ai massacri eseguiti dalla Family di Charles Manson. Non si può non fare il tifo per l’adolescente Vivian interpretata da Natasha Lyonne (la si rivede poi nella saga American Pie) e per una pimpante Marisa Tomei. Carl Reiner è una carogna davvero credibile.

L’assassinio di Jesse James per mano del codardo Robert Ford di Andrew Domink. Parata di stelle per raccontare la storia di uno dei banditi più famosi degli Stati Uniti: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, Sam Rockwell e un cameo davvero azzeccato di Nick Cave nel ruolo di un cantastorie.
Brad Pitt forse è un po’ troppo eroe patinato ma d’altra parte il produttore era lui e quindi…
Casey Affleck stranamente sa recitare al contrario del suo fratello mascellone.
La fotografia e l’uso dei colori è emozionante e bilancia correttamente l’analisi psicologica dei personaggi.

Continua la saga delle recensioni prendi tre paghi uno.