November
18
Oscar Watch: The Savages' Jenkins and Linney
Seeing The Savages for the second time, I marveled at how Tamara Jenkins took painful material about ailing parents, competitive siblings and nursing homes and made it funny. I look forward to what this gifted writer-director does next. On second viewing, as good as Philip Seymour Hoffman is, I realized that it's Laura Linney's movie. (Hoffman will go after a best actor nod for Before the Devil Knows Your Dead.) If Angelina Jolie or Cate Blanchett falls out, Linney could be a dark horse replacement for best actress. She's always good, and she's due (she was nominated twice, for supporting for Kinsey and lead for You Can Count On Me). Philip Bosco also nails the silent and reactive role of the unsympathetic, demented dad. Here's the LAT piece on Bosco.
After last week's Variety screening (which was not packed), Linney raved about Jenkins' writing. Scripts and characters this rich were rare, she said. With a low-budget 30-day shoot like this, Linney said, rehearsals are a luxury: you have to be focused and hit all your marks. She had never worked with Hoffman before; they were well-matched.
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I keep seeing movies this year about family disfunction (I finally saw Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and it's on the list) and The Savages was the nicest surprise of the bunch. All three actors take characters it would be easy to dislike and make you feel for them.
How The Savages managed to straddle the line between comedy and tragedy so effortlessly I haven't been able to figure out, but continue to marvel at. Much of it has to do with the performances.
Though I was more taken by Hoffman's performance, I agree that it's Linney's movie.
Posted by: cjKennedy | November 19, 2007 at 12:17 PM