Guide Note

The Savages is a comedic drama directed by Tamara Jenkins about a brother and sister who, after years of drifting apart, must face the responsibility of caring for their ailing father. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards.

Fast Facts

1. Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney
2. Favorite at Sundance and Telluride
3. Jenkins' last feature was the indie hit Slums of Beverly Hills
4. Company: Fox Searchlight
5. Produced by: Alexander Payne
6. Released: November 28, 2007
7. Budget: $9 million
8. Shot in Buffalo, New York
9. Academy Award nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Original Screenplay

About the Director

Tamara Jenkins is a screenwriter, director, and actress. Born in Philadelphia, she moved with her father and brothers to Beverly Hills after her parents divorced. This would later be the inspiration for her first feature The Slums of Beverly Hills. Starting as an actor and performance artist in the East Village in the 1980s, Jenkins decided to explore film and attended New York University in the 1990s. It was her short film, Fugitive Love, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991 that put Jenkins on the map.

Film Critique

Thoughts on the film from Richard Schickel of Time Magazine..."These actors are unimprovable as, somehow, they find a certain decency under the pressure of their grinding familial chore, a reason to hope that slightly better days may be ahead for them once their duty has been done. Writer-director Tamara Jenkins is less interested in heroically inspiring us than she is in showing us the values to be found in the more modest forms of dutifulness.”