Monday, July 21, 2008

Where's Tinkerbell?


Recently saw "The Savages". Had been meaning to for a while. In the movie while Wendy Savage (Linney) goes through her father's dead ex-girlfriends medicine cabinet, the prescription bottles are labeled Pagan Pharmaceuticals. A slight bash at our modern day dilemma with bottles (both plastic and glass), society! (exclaimed as Chris McCandless would), and too much time (and money). Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney's characters are named John and Wendy. "Peter Pan" ring a bell? My question is what the purpose of taking two characters from a story, most are familiar with, and indicating struggles of depression, anxiety, and ability to handle reality? The movie does a fantastic job of portraying the naturalism of their lifestyles, while prescriptions and stressful care-taking underlie the backbone theme. Is modern medicine the reality, or something we can persevere without? I guess you have to watch it to see for yourself. But I'll say this: Wendy and John are no longer in never never land, but in fact face the brutal cold of Buffalo, NY and the coveted nature of nursing homes, family traumas, and sibling one-uppers. The only magical realism we witness is part of a literal theatre production, and the magic of dog hip therapy. Seymour has two of the best scenes in the film, one being when he pulls a neck muscle and is hilariously strapped in some sort of brace around his jaw, holding him up like pulley would a brick; and the other when he rants on America's ability to hide death amongst landscaping and exercise.

Overall, I constantly questioned what exactly was savage about Wendy and John. Came to find nothing about their character narratives were corrupt, but instead their haunting past with their once savage father, and how abruptly situations presented themselves in their routine lives. Their reality is something we can all relate to, or might be able to depending on relative trauma; and I recommend watching three (you have to give it up for Philip Bosco's portrayal of dementia) splendid actors portray life ironies.

[Picture from Fox Searchlight]

1 comment:

DiBa said...

what's dog hip therapy?
and i want to see this movie. esp. since you mentioned meds.
modern medicine freaks me out sometimes. after my experience with the big C, i often wonder if they should've just left my thyroid in there. yes it was cancer stricken but what if i could of held onto it until they could figure out how to kill the big C. now im left with lonely parathyroids and a metabolism that is only functional when i take a pill every single day for the rest of my life. there is no guarantee that pills or the insurance for them or the pill companies will always exist. oh well....im forced to be apart of the pharmaceutical industry until im rich enough to buy a new thyroid. and im so sure dance will help me get there....noooooot. im allowed to babble this much in here???