- guardian.co.uk,
- Monday June 02 2008 11:39 BST
I retain fond memories of Slums of Beverly Hills, a wry little comedy not seen by many. This, a whole decade later, is the follow-up by its writer-director, Tamara Jenkins, and whatever has been keeping her away from movies, it clearly isn't talent or originality. This is another unassuming little film that is full of humour, irritation, the unpredictable awkwardness of life and the difficulty of getting along. It has the resonance of reality and reminds you how artificial most of what passes as real life in the movies is. If you wanted to cast a brother and sister as regular, bumbling, stressed-out people and needed them played without a hint of ego, you'd probably think of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. And if you have a script as good as this (it was Oscar-nominated, though this is a very un-Oscary film), you might land them.
Jenkins does for this tale of a brother and sister brought together when their estranged dad, in the early stages of dementia, is left to fend for himself when his girlfriend dies. This is an increasingly common, and excruciatingly difficult situation that's rarely covered cinematically. Jenkins gives us a drama professor writing an interminable book about Brecht (Hoffman) and a nervy playwriting temp (Linney, also Oscar-nominated). It's unobtrusively directed - with these actors, you just let them get on with it - and is performed with glancing subtlety. It avoids sentiment and sitcommery and leaves you to piece together a difficult shared childhood and guess what effect it has had on this prickly pair, who are perhaps able to relate better and move on with their lives as a result of the traumatic situation we see them living through. Let's hope Jenkins' next film will turn up before 2018.
