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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune: Assured and sharp, The Savages is only Jenkins' second feature-length film. You'd never know it. Read more
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Despite its dark humor, The Savages tackles the tough topics of aging, frailty, humiliation and death. All depressing stuff, to be sure, but Jenkins handles it with a delicate, relatable touch, and without being maudlin. Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Tamara Jenkins returns with a story that squarely addresses the concerns of middle age, treating them with the gravity they deserve but also the forbearance and humor they often demand. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Read more
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: While The Savages is a story about decrepitude and death, and chronicles a family whose wounds run too deep, it never has that claustrophobic, trapped-in-a-nightmare feeling of some dysfunctional family flicks. Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The Savages isn't cheery holiday fare, ... and yet Jenkins makes her film unexpectedly uplifting, in a small-scale, real-life kind of way. Read more
Scott Tobias, AV Club: 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 more
Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: Although the story may sound as dismal as Buffalo's weather, it's surprisingly funny. Not gag funny, but observation funny -- the absurdities of real life, seen and presented. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Smartly written and beautifully played. Read more
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: One of the best movies of the year so far. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: At its best, The Savages captures the lunacy that comes with coping with sorrow. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: Powerful, painful and yet unerringly funny as it points out our emotional and physical vulnerabilities, this is a film that finds the humor in tragedy while keeping both omnipresent. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: 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 more
Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: It's billed as a comedy. You may or may not find much to laugh at. Read more
John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: The Savages not only boasts Oscar-worthy performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as a self-absorbed brother and sister, its attention to detail makes it sweetly funny and genuine. Read more
Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Jenkins' brushstrokes of her characters are too exacting to move us more than a lifelike painting of a basket of fruit. We can be awed at the techniques, but walk away empty. Read more
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: [Director] Jenkins gleefully rubs the more graphic symptoms of dementia in our faces. But the movie also comes with the wistful sadness of a maturing filmmaker who understands that in matters of death, sorrow and black comedy often walk hand in hand. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: The Savages is the perfect comic offering for a season when family Pandora's boxes come swinging open like so many must-return gifts. Read more
David Ansen, Newsweek: 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 more
David Denby, New Yorker: Vital, honest, and engaging. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: 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 more
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The actors have found mutual subcurrents to their characters that project familial affection even when they are at each other's throats. Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Darkly hilarious, Tamara Jenkins' The Savages captures the cruel demographic joke facing many boomers who are forced to take care of aging parents at a point when they haven't entirely figured out their own lives. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: To everyone's credit, this film faces these issues bravely and humorously, eschewing any hint of emotional manipulation. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Read more
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Its astringent humor is not funny ha-ha, it's funny-ouch. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: These are fascinating, three-dimensional individuals brought into the foreground by a pair of today's finest actors. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Both Linney and Hoffman are so specific in creating these characters that we see them as people, not elements in a plot. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Tamara Jenkins has made a movie about something that lots of people are going through but nobody wants to deal with, not even in life, much less in entertainment. And she's done it fearlessly, with the right mix of humor and horror. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film is savagely funny about the indignities of old age, yet optimistic that it's never too late to have a happy childhood. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: 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 more
Susan Walker, Toronto Star: The dynamic that operates throughout this film is fantasy versus reality, not just in the lives of the characters but in American life in general. Read more
Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: 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 Read more
Jonathan Crocker, Time Out: Hoffman and Linney are wonderful -- underplaying so perfectly that crumpled, bittersweet truths continue to surface. Read more
Christopher Orr, The New Republic: Linney and Hoffman are both terrific, and Jenkins's script is pointed and perceptive, but the film's arc is a little flat. Read more
Todd McCarthy, Variety: Tamara Jenkins excels more at maximizing individual moments here than at developing a meaty storyline. But a great many of the moments are choice. Read more
Ella Taylor, Village Voice: The movie also comes with the wistful sadness of a maturing filmmaker who understands that in matters of death, sorrow and black comedy often walk hand in hand. Read more
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: One of those genre-defying hybrids that are sometimes called dramedies, The Savages tiptoes along a particularly fraught emotional tightrope, balancing observant humor and deep sadness with uncommon grace. Read more