The Savages is a sleeper film...superb and a must see for all facing dealing with an elderly parent with dementia. All of us face that issue or will become the issue at some time.

 

This film stars the two superb actors Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour as brother and sister who face dealing with their long ago disappeared and paternally challenged father.  Linney's character gets a phone call from Sun City in Arizona wherein she learns that her father is writing obscenities in feces on the bathroom wall of his elderly girlfriend's house and that the girlfriend has just died. She calls her brother, played by Seymour , in the middle of the night (she'd be making love with her older married lover) in a panic and demands that something be done.  They agree to fly to Sun City.

 

The brother is a 42 year old theatre misfit professor and the sister is a 39 year old playwright wannabe. Both are somewhat dysfunctional and commitment phobic. Once you get to know the father and the history, you'll understand why.

 

They bring the father back to Buffalo, NY where the brother  lives and the sister moves in with her brother temporarily. They place the father in a near by nursing home. Meanwhile they deal with the differing emotions about their father and between themselves.

 

Oh yes! for those of us cat lovers out there, she has an adorable cat named Genghis who has a not insignificant role in the film. I just wanted to hug the cat!

 

This is an excellent  film that must not be missed. Linney and Seymour play their characters with such depth and emotion. There is great acting all around, including the man who plays their self-centred demented father. And we all face the ugly reality of getting old, dealing with diapers and dementia-induced bad behaviour, and dying in a nursing home.

 

Do not  miss this one.