The Savages (2007) 8/10

Starring : Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman
Director : Tamara Jenkins
Running Time : 114 mins

Struggling playwright Wendy (Linney) and college professor Jon (Hoffman) are brother and sister who are forced together when their estranged father Lenny Savage (Bosco) is forced into a new care home following the death of his elderly girlfriend, and their lives get disrupted by his continual need for care and attention.

There are some great underplayed performances in this comedy drama that gives Linney and Hoffman the chance to play neurotic characters that it's hard to either like or dislike. They pretty much just act in a flat and ordinary manner, doing nothing above and beyond what would be expected of them, yet manage to make the depressing story of a father slowly losing his faculties into a light and frothy comedy drama. This is worth watching just to see how difficult it can be to bring humour from tragedy.

You’ll like this if you liked : Little Miss Sunshine