Two struggling, intellectual, and nearly estranged siblings, an unpublished playwright (Laura Linney) in an affair with a married man and her older brother (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a philosophy teacher and expert on Brecht though totally hopeless in his personal life, receive word that their completely estranged father has begun using his stool as finger paint and it may be time to place him in a home. When his partner drops dead, that process gets kicked into high gear and the siblings begin analyzing their own shortcomings and destinations during the painful process of seeing their father to his life's end. Tamara Jenkins' Savages is a perceptive, literate, and very funny film which doesn't go the often taken easy route through its material and while occasionally pushing the envelope on its level of discomfort, it always remains dynamic thanks to the distinct, humanized performances from its consummate stars.
