The Savages (2007)

This is the most depressing movie I have seen all year. I say this not a criticism, but as a fact. The reason why it is so depressing is because it gets so many things right. Written and directed by Tamara Jenkins, it seems like she must have had time with these characters in therapy grab their essence so well. Of course, Laura Linney, who is best being crazy but fragile, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who is brilliantly flawed, are perfect for their roles.

Linney plays Wendy a 39 year old over-educated woman working as a temp in New York City. Not sure how she pays the rent. She is in a small apartment with a foldout bed. She is in an unhealthy almost totally sexual relationship with a married man 13 years older than her. She is functionally sad.

Her brother, the Hoffman character, is an obese professor living Buffalo, who receives a hysterical phone call from his sister that their estranged father is in trouble. He seems to be used adding a rational counter-balance to his sister’s emotions. Later in film we learn that he is emotionally withdrawn, and cries at inopportune moments, such as when eating eggs. He is 42 years and claims to not be ready for marriage as his Polish girlfriend of three years goes back to Poland after her visa expires. Ever the rationalist his decisions lack an emotional compass.

Both characters seem so typical in real life.

When we meet the father we get a sense of the children’s backgrounds growing up with an emotionally and physically abusive father. There mother was completely out of the picture.

The father is living in Arizona with his girlfriend who just past away, and now he has no place to live. He is no longer able to care for himself.

The process of the health-care industry, the emotional drama of picking up the pieces of a life and ship it to place where they will die, was done is extreme accuracy. The moments of packing up their father’s pocessions, finding a nursing home, dealing with the staff, taking the loved one out to a restaurant to get out for a moment, it is all too real. So much so that it could be training for adults with older parents. I couldn’t help thinking will I have to do that.

At the very end, there is a little hope, maybe.

When I saw them film, in the audience were senior citizens in crowd who seemed offended that people were laughing at the plight of life at the nursing home. I guess for them it wasn’t funny. Actually, I didn’t think much was funny in the film, unless it was tragically funny. There was a seen where they were playing a scene from the Jazz Singer (1928), where Al Jolson was putting on back-face. The movie was a film the father picked out, and pained expressions on his children faces was funny if you can relate in someway.

The Nanny Diaries (2007)

Well, don’t want to say that this movie sucked, it certainly didn’t, although nothing else seems to come to mind.

I think if you are fan of the book, I think you will be significantly disappointed. It reminds me of the “Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy” – good book, bad movie.

Of course The Nanny Diaries is not without it’s redeeming qualities. Watching Scarlett Johansson for an hour and a half goes without saying. Laura Linney, Mrs. X, carries the film. She is fragile, terrible, and sympathetic at the same time. She plays the abusive selfish 5th Avenue mother, which Johansson, the Nanny, works for. Paul Giamatti plays her husband very well. He is as disgusting as one can be. As far acting talent goes, that’s about it. The kid, Grayer, played by Nicolas Art was probably the worst child actor I have ever seen. Alicia Keys plays the Nanny’s best friend, which makes absolutely no sense, because both girls seem like they would never have anything to do with each other. Chris Evans plays the Nanny’s love interest. I kept on waiting for him to say “Flame on” and rescue her as the “Human Torch.” Their romance is lacking too, as the movie gives no reason why they would want to be with each other, except for animal lust.

You can see how this is a very entertaining book. Some of the text is kept in the narration, which is cute, funny and insightful. However, the filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini do about everything they can to ruin a very engaging and entertaining summer read. The first part of the Nanny Diaries feels like you are watching a Lizzie Macquire story. It gets better as you get into the story, which is good, but it is told in such a boring way. It could have easily been a Disney channel movie, if only they had edited it down.

The locations in the film are easily for most New Yorkers to recognize Columbia University, the Travelers building in Tribeca, the Avalon apartments in Jersey City, etc.


The best part of the movie is looking at this world of the superrich through an anthropological lens. It is both funny and puts things into perspective.

The Nanny Diaries is a story of a girl from New Jersey who has just graduated college. She is daughter of a single mother. She takes a job as a nanny to avoid life. Lies to her mother about the job. She finds herself almost being a slave to a rich bitch. However, she falls for the little boy who she is taking care and cannot leave the job so easily because of that. After the husband tries to seduce her, which she resists, the wife fires her. What is both sad and fascinating about this story is how realistic it seems. It is one of those times when reality is much stranger than fiction (no pun).

I would recommend the book over the movie.