Away From Her

Away from Her
$14.98
I just couldn't take my eyes of the television screen while watching this movie! It was ever so touching and will always be one of my all time favorite movies.

Evening
$14.98
By the end of this movie, I was crying. Very emotional portrayal of a dying mother who has never gotten over her first love. The daughters also have their own dramas going on - with one coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy. Kind of reminds me of Fried Green Tomatoes.

The only thing I didn't like about this movie was the "F" bomb that was dropped on us at the beginning. Quite unnecessary.

Away from Her
$8.99
I just couldn't take my eyes of the television screen while watching this movie! It was ever so touching and will always be one of my all time favorite movies.

The Savages
$27.98
4 1/2 stars.

The Savages immediately brings to our attention the
uncaring treatment of the elderly by caretakers in
its opening scene. And calls into question the high
tolerance one must have to deal with people in a decrepit
condition suffering from diseases that can regress one
back into child-like behavior.

Two estranged siblings (Laura Linney and Philip-Seymour
Hoffman) are quickly called upon to help their unpleasant
father whom is diagnosed with dementia. The daughter, Wendy,
realizes the gravity of the situation and seeks to fulfill
that motherly instinct by caring for a man who could hardly
be called a father. The son, Jon, is initially reluctant and
uncaring of the father's plight, but gives in due to Wendy's
pressure and his obligation as a son. Down the road we are
given glimpses of the father's true colors at the most
inopportune moments, hinting at what a truly horrible man
he was. Mr. Savages old film reel is shown one night at the
home, adding racism to his list of horrible traits.

The wounded siblings seek to establish some form of a normal
love life, but it is precarious at best, as the daughter
sleeps with a married man she has no intellectual or emotional
connection to. When this man brings attention to the reality
of the situation, Wendy quickly severs contact. Subesquently,
she becomes infatuated with a Nigerian caretaker, one who
shows her the attention that she desperately craves. In an
awkward scene the two sit side-by-side and Wendy unexpectedly
puts a move on the man, and makes the comment "I'm so gross!"
when her advance is rejected (A symptom of her father's racism).
Despite her beauty, she does not see herself as beautiful and
does not feel worthy of true emotional intimacy, but only
physical love with no strings attached (A symptom of incest
by the father?). The son fairs just as badly, rejecting emotional
commitment and making far-fetched excuses as to why he cannot
be with a woman that clearly cares about him, or is at least
trying to. Amusingly, the two become judges of each others torn
lives, but fail to be introspective of their own.

The actors play these flawed characters superbly with nuance
and realism, exposing those repressed emotions at just the
right moments. The film's main points of human fallibility and
death are done so effectively; leaving the viewer to be
introspective of our own lives and sympathetic to those close
to us. "The Savages" certainly deserves the awards it has recieved
and I will be on the lookout for future films by Tamara Jenkins.

This is the third film in which Laura Linney soothingly says
the name John (The Mothman Prophecies and the John Adams series
being the other two, though there might be more).