The Savages

I guess Jon and I both had pretty high expectations for this one, our last movie of 2007. It wasn't bad, but neither of us really got drawn in.

Perhaps we are too young for it to hit us emotionally. We think the days of putting our parents into a nursing home/assisted living/hospital are all too far away for us to sympathize more than just cerebrally. Were we closer in age and situation to the characters or had we been through something like this, we might have related more. The story was predictable, easy. There is hope and redemption at the end. We both left saying it was "cute." In general, we don't like "cute." The story is sad and then happy. The siblings don't get a long very well and then they do better. Oh well.

I'd like to note, though, that every time I see Philip Seymour Hoffman, I am more impressed. He has really come into his own since playing roles like those in Boogie Nights (in which he was fabulous) and The Big Lebowski (in which he was fabulous, but kind of in the same way.) Since then we have seen him play a stunning array of roles and all well -- if not brilliantly.