“The Savages” is aptly named, but to call it a comedy is misguided and gives a false impression. Sure, there are moments of humor in the film but almost all of them are embedded in a discomforting or largely embarrassing context. For example, Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco) hurling personal insults at his two adult children, Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) in a crowded restaurant, attracting attention that makes the two siblings squirm in their seats. Brother and sister are really put through the mill by their obstreperous dad who is suffering from Dementia. Dealing with him as his health deteriorates is hell, but it forces them to deal with some of their own baggage that they have traveled with for years. “The Savages” isn’t the easiest movie to sit through, but it is a no-bullshit version of a tough situation that many families have had to cope with and when its over there is a strange uplift that the brother and sister did as well as could be imagined in the circumstance.

Complicating this story is the fact that the father, Lenny, was a S.O.B. who treated his kids badly when they were growing up, something they both deeply resent. He drove their mother away and they have never heard from her since she fled the family zoo. Jon and Wendy, who live very separate lives at different ends of New York State, receive a phone call one night that their father, who they haven’t seen in many years has gone around the bend by writing an insult about a health care provider in shit on the wall. For the past twenty years he had been living with a woman in Sun City, Arizona, but her family tosses him out after she suddenly dies. They send him to a hospital for care until Jon and Wendy arrive. They decide they have to go to Arizona and do the right thing, despite the past. Their own estrangement from each other and general vulnerability makes the task even more stressful and difficult. Jon is a professor at a University in Buffalo and Wendy lives in New York City and is an aspiring playwright. He has just broken up with a woman he has lived with for three years; he is smart but overweight and has slovenly habits; he is writing a book about Brecht but is lazy and is having trouble finishing it. He worries a lot about keeping his teaching position. Wendy knows her older brother doesn’t have much respect for her so she fudges and fibs on what she tells him. She is very neurotic and has low self-esteem. He is 42 and she’s slightly younger. They both seem to have a phobia about commitment. She is single but is in a sex-driven but loveless relationship with a married man, a relationship she can’t undo, but knows she should.

When they first encounter their father, it’s in the hospital and he is tied down because he is so unruly. Their hearts sink when they see that he is secured to the bed. He barks at them, “Do something!” So right off the bat they are reminded what a cantankerous personality he has and how abusive he can be. But Jon pushes ahead, determined to do what has to be done, and Wendy follows his lead. He flies back to Buffalo to find a place that will take him. His attitude is consistently practical and he refuses to indulge in the use of euphemisms to describe a Nursing Home: it is what it is and to call it something genteel and semi-poetic doesn’t change the facts. Poor Wendy is saddled with the job of getting Lenny back to Buffalo and there is another bathroom incident on the plane. But she accomplishes the task. There are a number of other troubling incidents through the rest of the movie, but both brother and sister do the best they can in the circumstance.

What the Savage siblings went through together has a payoff, which is an upbeat ending to their story that takes place six months later. The trial of situating Lenny ends up bringing about reconciliation and a bonding process for them that is entirely believable and convincing. Saying goodbye to each other they hug, and it is the first time they have done that through the entire movie. God bless and hallelujah!

I really appreciated the hardnosed treatment of the relevant material and Tamara Jenkins’ direction in keeping it on track. Like Ms. Jenkins, I have had a parent stay in a nursing home, mine for 11 years after a crippling stroke. They are depressing places, even the best of them, and it was always difficult to go there. You can imagine how your parent would feel!

Philip Bosco is excellent as Lenny. He has made 40 movies even though he considers himself, first and foremost, a stage actor. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a terrific actor, a pleasure to watch. He is becoming one of our best. Laura Linney is top notch as well. Thank god the two of them are more than willing to make Indies, the so-called small picture. “The Savages” is like a small diamond whose light will shine in my mind for a long time.