Strong performances key to ‘The Savages’

In theaters

THE SAVAGES, written and directed by Tamara Jenkins, 105 minutes, rated R.

The new Tamara Jenkins movie, “The Savages,” is about a fractured family standing at the intersection of death and dementia. It’s a film about unresolved relationships trying to resolve themselves before death’s clock rings.

Billed as a dark comedy, the movie comes through with the darkness it promises, but not always in ways the viewer might expect. Quirks abound, but so does the not-so-easy-to-hear truth about aging and dying – in one scene, for instance, the untidiness of the dying process is spelled out in one depressing, caustic rant.

The film stars Laura Linney as Wendy Savage, a difficult, struggling playwright living in New York City who works temp jobs on the side while applying for grants to fund her life and her unpublished productions.

She has a cat and a ficus tree that she loves, and a mate (Peter Friedman) 13 years older than she who is physically available to her, though not emotionally – he’s married. As such, Wendy resents him and she loves him. Or at least she thinks she loves him. For Wendy, who was abandoned by her mother as a child and then saddled with an abusive, distant father in Lenny (Philip Bosco), you suspect that love always has pushed away from her, increasingly by her own hand.

Meanwhile, her brother, Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is a frazzled, frumpy theater professor living in Buffalo, N.Y. He has his own problems – the inability to live in a clean environment being one of them, his fiercely competitive relationship with his sister being another. More significant is his unwillingness to wed his girlfriend (Cara Seymour) of three years, who now must return to her native Poland because her visa ran out. Though he’s willing to stand by and watch her go, he still loves her, so much so that he cries each time she makes him eggs.

In this film about two people who lack the tools to love, the focus narrows on Lenny, whose own girlfriend of 20 years has just dropped dead and who now needs his two estranged children to travel across the country to tend to his needs. Since he’s suffering from dementia and his health is failing, those needs are significant, and they work to turn this shattered family inside out with guilt, rage and grief over the course of the ensuing weeks. After all, Wendy and Jon have long since lost touch with who Lenny is, and chances are, in his current condition, they won’t ever know. That frustration complicates the movie considerably.

Excellent performances mark “The Savages,” with Linney and Hoffman each navigating characters who could have become unlikable had they not been shaded with nuance. Throughout, there are glimpses of how Wendy and Jon might have emerged as human beings had life not been so rough with them during their formative growing-up years. They’re damaged people, yes, but they are only savages by name.

Grade: B+

On DVD and Blu-ray

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, directed by David Silverman, written by Matt Groening, 86 minutes, rated PG-13.

In “The Simpsons Movie,” Earth is at stake – never mind just Springfield – and who better than Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie to come to its rescue?

OK, so it’s best not to answer that question, particularly since it’s Homer and his new pet pig, Spider-Pig, who ignite the crisis in the first place.

Wearing its environmental heart on its sleeve, “The Simpsons Movie” arrives on DVD and Blu-ray disc with a timely message in hand – the world is choking on our fumes, trash and pig poop, folks, and the future looks grim.

Given its subject matter, some might think the movie was directed by Al Gore, perhaps after stopping by for a smoke on the set of “Weeds,” but no. In fact, the film’s director is David Silverman, who works from a script written by no fewer than 11 writers, among them creator Matt Groening, whose Fox television series on which the movie is based is one of pop culture’s great success stories.

In its most streamlined form, the film finds Lake Springfield in a state of toxic disarray. Lisa (voice of Yeardley Smith) is on a campaign to raise awareness about how the careless actions of many are ruining the lake and, by extension, the planet itself. As she sees it, we’re all faced with “An Irritating Truth” and it’s time to do something about it. With the exception of her new beau, a young Irish lad whose father, he insists, is not Bono, nobody listens to Lisa, least of all Homer (Dan Castellaneta), whose relationship with his new pet pig borders on the questionable, if not the obscene.

When Marge (Julie Kavner) asks what he’s doing with the pig’s droppings, he takes her to the huge silo he constructed in the back yard, in which molders the answer. Charged to get rid of it, Homer takes the silo to the lake, dumps it in spite of the countless warning signs not to do so, and unwittingly unleashes the sort of ecological blunder that changes fish into mutants, and which also catches the attention of the EPA.

What ensues is a good movie that doesn’t best the series’ best episodes, but moments do come close. Silverman and company have crafted a careful balancing act designed to give audiences what they want – Homer making a fool of himself, Bart (Nancy Cartwright) up to no good, Marge overwhelmed, Lisa bulldozing forward for a good cause – while also working in favorite characters from the past.

It’s all just enough – just enough for most fans, who likely will dig seeing Bart nude, and just enough for the casually curious, who now might be tempted to do what Fox really wants them to do – buy all those box sets of the television series awaiting them on DVD.

Grade: B+

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.