Leonard (Philip Bosco) is an irascible old man who lives with his girlfriend in Sun City, Arizona. He is also beginning to suffer from dementia and has a adversarial relationship with the caretaker whom his girlfriend's family hired to take care of her (notably not him). After the woman's death and the a prominent incident involving human feces, two siblings John (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) must go to Arizona and figure out what to do with their aging father.
Wendy lives a fairly miserable life in New York City, aspiring to be a playwright she furtively uses work to type up grant applications. The manner in which she barely hides what she is and isn't doing from her manager is a genuinely funny and by all accounts from friends in the cubicle shackled soul devouring corporate machine just about 100% accurate for those artistically inclined. But personal life isn't much better for Wendy who lives in a drab apartment and clings to two things, her cat and her ficus tree. Wendy is also in an extra-marital affair. Wendy cries out for success as a playwright and it probably isn't going to far to say her only escape is probably writing.
John's life seems a bit more satisfying. He is a professor in Buffalo and is trying to complete a book on Bertolt Brecht. His long term girlfriend's visa has expired but he is too commitment phobic to ask her to marry him. I say seems because of course upon analysis it isn't that much better at all. John seems almost bored teaching in class and his house is a mass of piled up books and clutter.
Despite their lives and their geographic distance, the first time the two communicate in the movie, you fall into a warm familiarity. These two are brother and sister. Wendy more neurotic is freaking out while John more methodical is attempting to calm her down. They have a necessary if complicated relationship seemingly necessitated by parental apathy towards them as children. They bicker like real siblings, they interact with third parties like real siblings and they have affection for one another like real siblings.
And this fact lies at the heart of this film. One can't help but remain fascinated by an extraordinarily complex family relationship as John and Wendy deal not only with the trials of their own lives but also with the very real tragedy of a dying parent. How they deal with this notion of mortality, their mixed feelings towards their distant father and the difficulty of pushing on when it seems like everything is beyond hope are all treated with abundant tenderness.
The trio of Bosco, Hoffman and Linney all deserve praise for their roles. Hoffman is having a stellar year that also included amazing performances in Charlie Wilson's War and Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. And what is amazing about that feat is that each role is so utterly different. His CIA agent from Charlie Wilson's War is a foul-mouthed spy who doesn't buy into the politics of spying with a pessimistic view of the world. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead he plays another brother but this one more self-serving and manipulative towards his sibling.
And so it is refreshing in so many ways to see the level-headed almost lovable academic lump in this movie. More so because Linney shines so brightly because of and beside him. You develop such empathy for her character that although I personally found the tail end of the film a bit tacky, I nevertheless was exhilarated by her triumph. Bosco also adds to many of the scenes most notably one where he turns off his hearing aid to avoid the loud bickering of his two children.
By no means is this an easy film to watch at times. It has humor but often at the expense of the absurdity of dysfunction. It has melancholy moments as well. These all add to its incredibly strong narrative and well crafted characters.
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