The Savages
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: November 28, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The Savages is terrific -- a movie of uncommon appreciation for the nature and nurture that go into making us who we are, a perfectly calibrated drama both compassionate and unsentimental. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
A brutal encounter with mortality told with uncommon humanity, wit and humor. Read full review
91
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
This movie provides no phony catharsis or closure; it develops a vision of people growing in spurts from their most terrible mistakes. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
It is more sad-funny than funny-funny, but Jenkins has enough empathy and wit to realize that even the sad parts are, somehow, funny. Read full review
90
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Jenkins brings a rigor, intelligence and eye for the slightly absurd to the proceedings that is instantly disarming. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The Savages is a delightful movie--the perfect companion piece (and antidote) to the year’s other superb convalescent-dementia picture, "Away From Her." Read full review
90
NewsweekDavid Ansen
It sounds grimmer than it plays, thanks to Jenkins's sardonic, deadpan humor and the superb cast, who invest these damaged characters with rich, flawed, hilarious humanity. This bittersweet X-ray of American family dynamics may not be a Hallmark-card notion of a holiday movie, but it's one any son or daughter can take to heart. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Tamara Jenkins’s The Savages, is a beautifully nuanced tragicomedy about two floundering souls. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
What makes the movie memorable is the precision of its tone, its finely calibrated combination of bitterness and warmth. Of course the acting is tremendous, and you'd expect nothing less. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Schickel
I wouldn't call the film inspirational -- it is too well observed to succumb to easy sentiment -- but its realism is patiently engaging and subtly insinuating. And Linney and Hoffman are extraordinary. Read full review
90
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Bringing a tough, astringent wit to a subject too often wrapped in the cozy blanket of sentimentality or cute humor, Tamara Jenkins takes a frank look at the indignities of aging in The Savages, a black comedy that invites viewers to laugh or at least smile ruefully at the dying of the light. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Jenkins' superlative work proves her first film was no fluke; let's hope it doesn't take another nine years to hear from her again. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
With the help of acting giants, Jenkins turns The Savages into a twisted, bittersweet pleasure. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
While the film is heart-wrenchingly sad, it also is mordantly funny, uncomfortably prickly and above all, unflinching in its depiction of a believable sibling relationship. Read full review
88
PremiereGlenn Kenny
I generally resist calling any actor's work "brave" or "fearless" or any such thing, but Bosco's work here made me reconsider that self-imposed ban. It's incredible, harrowing, precise stuff. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Darkly hilarious. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneJessica Reaves
A bracingly honest, funny movie about death and family that skillfully sidesteps the usual pitfalls of sentimentality and mawkishness. It’s what you might call an awards season miracle. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Both Linney and Hoffman are so specific in creating these characters that we see them as people, not elements in a plot. Hoffman in particular shows how many disguises he has within his seemingly immutable presence; would you know it is the same actor here and in two other films this season, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and "Charlie Wilson's War"? Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Smartly written and beautifully played, The Savages is about that point in life where you look around and realize that where you are is probably as far as you're going to get. In spite of this, the movie's a comedy, dry and humane. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
A movie of absurdist humor, brutal realism and dementia. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The Tony-winning Bosco, one of the great stage actors of the last 50 years, does a lot with a little in his restricted role; he's haughty, almost dignified by his angry silence. Linney and Hoffman stay pitch-perfect in their noisy desperation and sullen withdrawal. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The frequent outbursts of comedy help alleviate a tone that's appropriately muted and sad, and Jenkins should be credited for refusing to tack smiley-faces onto a tough, possibly lose-lose situation. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
A darkly funny journey about life ticking by and the change to make wrongs right. Read full review
80
Film ThreatJamie Tipps
The interaction between Hoffman and Linney makes following their characters from their winter of hard experience to a spring of renewed hope well worth the while. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Vital, honest, and engaging. Read full review
80
Village VoiceElla Taylor
The movie is dotted with moments of grace and whacked-out humor that got me on board for this damaged duo's liberation. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
I can't begin to count the ways in which The Savages pleased me, but the very best of them is the way Tamara Jenkins's comedy stays tough while sneakily turning tender. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Disappointment, delusion, dementia, death--did I mention this is a comedy? Read full review
80
EmpireAndrew Male
A richly nuanced American comedy, with two acting talents working at their absolute peak. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The Savages is funny in the if-you-didn't-laugh-you'd-cry way and superbly acted by all involved, including the supporting cast of home-care attendants, nurses, hospital administrators, intake personnel and nursing-home staff. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The Savages is a TV movie made for the big screen - and it needs the larger venue to accommodate the huge performances of its stars, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
These are fascinating, three-dimensional individuals brought into the foreground by a pair of today's finest actors. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
As thin and jokey as this movie often is, I prefer it to the serioso treatment that usually encrusts this type of material. At its best, The Savages captures the lunacy that comes with coping with sorrow. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Suffused with clever lines, characters with neurotic tics and a pervasive, jocular black humour, The Savages is more about craft than art, but the craft, especially in the writing and acting, is at a high level. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The right mix of humor and horror and with not even a shred of sentimentality. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The Savages is ultimately about two siblings, both around 40, in the midst of learning it's never too late to start embracing life, no matter how rotten a hand you were dealt in the past. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
The film has a dreary, worn quality; much of it is set in winter in Buffalo, N.Y., after all. You know before long that the best you can hope for is that these folks won't kill each other or themselves. Read full review
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