When their ageing father's health takes a turn for the worse, Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) and her brother Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are forced to forget their fighting and face one another.

Wendy is a struggling playwright living in New York City. She works a day job to support herself and can’t shake the feeling she’s failed as an artist. Wendy isn’t especially happy about her love life either, gaining little self-esteem from her on-and-off affair with her oversexed, married neighbour Larry (Peter Friedman).

Wendy’s anxieties about her writing career are intensified by the success of her brother, who teaches theatre history at a college in Buffalo, New York, and has published a number of books. While Jon’s life seems fine on the surface, a case of writer’s block has stalled work on his latest project, and he’s deeply upset that his girlfriend is soon to leave the US to return to her native Poland.

Wendy and Jon don’t get along, but an unfortunate circumstance brings them together – their father, Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco). Elderly Lenny has began showing signs of dementia, and his ailing long-term girlfriend suddenly dies.

Wendy and Jon have little choice but to fly to Arizona to be by Lenny’s side, but their long-simmering animosity makes it hard for them to deal with the realities of their father’s serious condition.

The Savages made its world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

The Savages is rated M and is screening at Birch Carroll & Coyle.

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