"Maybe he just forgot who we were."
Wendy Savage (Laura Linney), an aspiring playwright, works temp jobs in NYC. Her estranged brother Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a college professor in Buffalo, NY, is on deadline for a book about Bertold Brecht. Their father Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco), who had been abusive when Wendy and Jon were children, lives in a retirement community in Arizona with his girlfriend of 20-some years.
Though Wendy and Jon have had nothing to do with their father for all those years, they are summoned to Arizona to deal with him after his ladyfriend passes away. Her family is no longer willing to assume responsibility for Lenny now that their own mother is gone.
With great trepedation and not really wanting to face what lies ahead, Wendy and Jon fly to Arizona to find their father sinking into dementia to such a degree that he cannot take care of himself and needing more than assisted living.
Facing the tension between them, Wendy and Jon are forced to also explore the reasons for their distance from their father and each of their own character defects that have kept them both from forming fulfilling interpersonal relationships in their own lives. Wendy, at age 39, has settled for a long-term relationship with a married man (Peter Friedman) who obviously has no plans of leaving his wife. Jon, who is older than Wendy, is willing to let his long-term girlfriend (Cara Seymour) return to Poland because despite his apparent love for her, he is unwilling to commit to marriage which would allow her to remain in the USA.
Written and directed by Tamara Jenkins.
Rated R for some sexuality and language.
My personal rating: A-
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