There is nothing pleasant about growing old. Things start sagging and bodily fluids start leaking unwillingly. Your family members are busy with their lives and most of the time your significant other passes on, leaving you with nothing but loneliness and misery. The only real thing you have to look forward to is the day you don’t wake up.

For sons and daughters, the hardest thing we’ll ever have to deal with is the day our parents may require a special amount of care. They may even need our undivided attention as they can no longer care for themselves at all. Nursing homes seem to be the most popular option to work with. We all know what goes on in those places and how they smell, but perhaps the hardest part to deal with is how it signifies the once normal relationship you’ve had with a parent coming to an abrupt end.

In Tamara Jenkins’ The Savages, siblings Wendy (Laura Linney) and Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are dealing with this same dilemma. Their father, Lenny (Philip Bosco), is getting kicked out of the house he’s lived in for a while with his girlfriend (who just recently passed). But he is suffering a bit from Parkinson’s disease and dementia, so it’s obvious he needs constant attention. The siblings then move him to a nursing home in Buffalo, the city where Jon lives. They have a hard time dealing with this situation, however, since their father was never really in their lives to begin with.

The film only really focuses on this troublesome past in passing conversation. It’s an obvious issue for Jon and Wendy but they both understand that it’s something that will never be resolved. Their father is too far-gone for that. They move on and instead, center their attention on putting him in the best place possible. Wendy especially wants nothing more than for her father to be spared from the humiliation and disparagement that people with such conditions simply can’t prevent. Even though they both know that no matter how glamorous nursing homes present themselves to be, all they are really doing is disguising the death going on inside their walls.

Anyone who has gone through a similar occurrence with a family member will instantly connect with these characters. Hoffman and Linney create a wonderful chemistry with each other, but the supporting role by Philip Bosco steals the show. His performance as a senior going through the motions of aging is hypnotic, heartbreaking, and dead-on. It’s the kind of performance awards were created for.

Jenkins’ screenplay tackles a whirlwind of issues in a rather brilliant fashion. Their father’s lack of interest in their lives has given them enough issues to fuel a Jerry Springer marathon. Another film may have used this for a more dramatic and confrontational story. Thankfully, The Savages isn’t interested in going that route and instead overlooks the past. It deals in the now and how their newfound relationship with their father may finally change their lives for the better.