Tamara Jenkins, best known for the offbeat Slums of Beverly Hills, makes a triumphant return with this stirring, funny, and tenderly observed dramatic comedy about two delinquent siblings trying to care for their neglectful father in his twilight years. Laura Linney gives one of her finest performances as Wendy Savage, the emotionally stunted self-saboteur who dreams of being a famous playwright and often exaggerates details of her life to better impress her peers. She's matched ably by Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Jon Savage, a scholar writing a book about Brecht while simultaneously grappling with his emotional detachment. Together the two embark on a whirlwind, life changing journey that delivers on all levels. This is one of the smartest comedies of the year with characters so dynamic that they are nothing short of miraculous.Veteran actor Philip Bosco is perhaps the film's beating heart as Lenny Savage the cantankerous yet unforgettably vulnerable old man who has been entrusted to the Savage siblings. He swears and rants bitterly at them but in the moments where his absent-mindedness and physical impairments become evident, he is reduced to the sad state of near infancy, requiring the assistance of the people he so aggressively lashed out at only seconds before. It's a heartbreaking portrait of dementia that's as honest and disturbing as it is unpredictably funny. This is the sort of film that not only highlights life's tragedies but also recognizes the ways in which it is very often unconventionally hilarious. This is a gem of a character comedy with a great, organic laughs and complex, fascinating characters.
Grade: A
