After You Can Count On Me, we all wanted Laura Linney to be our sister. After The Savages, we're no longer quite so sure. In Tamara Jenkins' acidic and melancholy drama, Linney is the well-meaning but overreactive sibling who butts heads with her flighty brother (Philip Seymour Hoffman) over the care of their dementia-stricken dad. It's another funny, sad, touching, and utterly believable turn from the actress, who has previously landed Academy Award nominations for her roles in 2000's You Can Count On Me and 2004's Kinsey. ''[The Savages shoot] was very short, but it felt very long,'' says Linney. ''It was a very intense period of time.'' Thanks to her impressively multilayered performance, watching The Savages is an intense experience as well.

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