Savage Grace

Name: Savage Grace
Genre: Drama
Released: May 30, 2008
Duration: 97 min
Rating: 51
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane

2008

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Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews

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Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Ratings

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5.7

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Savage Grace

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Movie Details & Credits

IFC Films | Release Date: May 30, 2008 | Not Rated

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane

Summary: Savage Grace, based on the award winning book, tells the incredible true story of Barbara Daly, who married above her class to Brooks Baekeland, the dashing heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. Beautiful, red-headed and charismatic, Barbara is still no match for her well-bred husband. The birth of the couple's only child, Tony, rocks theSavage Grace, based on the award winning book, tells the incredible true story of Barbara Daly, who married above her class to Brooks Baekeland, the dashing heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. Beautiful, red-headed and charismatic, Barbara is still no match for her well-bred husband. The birth of the couple's only child, Tony, rocks the uneasy balance in this marriage of extremes. Tony is a failure in his father's eyes. As he matures and becomes increasingly close to his lonely mother, the seeds for a tragedy of spectacular decadence are sown. Spanning 1946 to 1972, the film unfolds in six acts. The Baekelands' pursuit of social distinction and the glittering 'good life' propels them across the globe. We follow their heady rise and tragic fall against the backdrop of New York, Paris, Cadaques, Mallorca and London.
(IFC First Take)
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Director: Tom Kalin

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 97 min

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Critic Reviews

Shawn Levy

If you might wish the film got deeper under the skin of the characters, you also feel grateful for the fact that you'll never get closer to them than watching it. Read full review

Liam Lacey

The film walks the fine line between exploitation and empathy to cast a chilly, memorable spell. Read full review

David Edelstein

Howard A. Rodman's script has a lot of juice, and the rhythms are so pregnant that the air vibrates with something, even if you're not sure what. Read full review

Claudia Puig

Savage Grace is a thoroughly disturbing story, told in a detached style rendering the overall experience an unsettling blend of lurid and vacuous. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Ken Fox

Has everything one could ask of a true-crime expose. Read full review

A.O. Scott

Proust might have known what to do with the Baekelands, but Mr. Kalin and Mr. Rodman don't make much more of them than the mess they apparently already were. Read full review

Walter Addiego

An unbroken flow of sad or nasty incidents. Read full review

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User Reviews

[Anonymous]

Jun 6, 2008

An amazing film. It pulls you so deeply into the story. Suspenseful and ultimately shattering. Tom Kalin is a great filmmaker.

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FilipeNeto

Oct 5, 2021

What goes on behind the glittering lives of moneyed high society? Often the opposite of what they look like. Lonely lives, emotional dilemmas, old traumas, marital betrayals, apparent marriages, unspeakable secrets, mental anguish. The family of this film, inspired by a real event (whichWhat goes on behind the glittering lives of moneyed high society? Often the opposite of what they look like. Lonely lives, emotional dilemmas, old traumas, marital betrayals, apparent marriages, unspeakable secrets, mental anguish. The family of this film, inspired by a real event (which does not mean that everything we see in the film actually happened), is a true case study. They had everything… except happiness.

It all started with the marriage of Brooks Baekeland, heir to an incredible fortune from the invention of Bakelite, the first plastic, with the “social climber” Barbara, and the birth of a son, Anthony. Their loveless marriage and lack of home life have turned them into strangers who live together, go to parties, entertain guests, and entertain themselves with a lot of lovers. Coming from a family with a history of mental disorders, Barbara has a bipolar behavior, with phases of great expansiveness and social brilliance intertwined with outbursts of anger, arguments at home, depression. Tony, thus, grows up in a loveless home, where the only one who showed him affection was a dog, whose collar he will keep for years. In addition, he inherits his mother's unstable psyche, with whom he develops an intense Oedipus complex before he discovers his bisexuality, which his mother will try to "fix". After a nomadic life, in which they live in mansions all over the chic Europe of the Sixties (Switzerland, Paris, French Riviera, coast of Catalonia, Italy, etc.), Barbara is abandoned by her husband, who exchanges her for a younger woman in whom her son was already interested, hastening the family's downfall and tragic end.

This movie is a big family drama with few taboos. Directed by Tom Kalin, the film has a production overwhelmingly dominated by Italians and French, which is reflected in its somewhat raw aesthetic, and a distant coldness that never allows the film to build an atmosphere of real dramatic tension, which would have been desirable and welcome. In fact, by the nature of what we see, the film manages to show the futile and empty atmosphere of the family and, later on, baffle or even shock the audience with the characters' sexual behavior, but it does not convey the tense and cutting environment that would have been experienced, especially, in the relationship between mother and son, a relationship of mutual love and repulsion.

The cast has several strong names, starting with a great Julianne Moore, an actress of enormous talent who gives us an extraordinary and consistent performance. She does a great job when collaborating with Eddie Redmayne, a great actor who, at this time, was on a safe upward path after two good performances (in the movies “Like Minds” and “Good Shepherd”). He, too, is a safe bet, although his somewhat introverted acting didn't help to create tension in the film. Despite being a central figure throughout the story, Stephen Dillane's character is prominent by his absence from a certain point, being more mentioned than visible. Still, the actor made good use of the opportunities and did a satisfying job, albeit in the shadow of Moore and Redmayne. The film also features the satisfactory collaborations of Hugh Dancy and Elena Anaya, and appearances by some good European actors such as Belén Rueda, Simon Andreu and Unax Ugalde.

It is in the technical aspects that the film most absorbs the influence of the cinematographic currents of France and Spain. I've already talked about the cold and somewhat distant way in which the film follows the various events, the little capacity to create dramatic tension (one of the problems to be corrected in European cinema, for me), but the cinematography itself reveals itself as static, cold, stripped of movement and intensity. The colors themselves seem lukewarm, as uninteresting as atonal music. The sets and costumes work very well, and the chosen filming locations were very well-used. A word, in particular, for Moore's excellent wardrobe in this film.… Expand

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pdw123

Sep 19, 2016

Unfortunately, I have to give this film (which could have been directed and adapted much better) only 2 stars, notwithstanding the wonderful performance by Julianne Moore. She had some horrible material to work with here. The resultant story is too shallow to be fully appreciated, althoughUnfortunately, I have to give this film (which could have been directed and adapted much better) only 2 stars, notwithstanding the wonderful performance by Julianne Moore. She had some horrible material to work with here. The resultant story is too shallow to be fully appreciated, although obviously the story of a hedonistic, amoral son growing up in the rich and infamous world could have been much more interesting. Next time, more research guys!!… Expand

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JayH

Sep 18, 2008

Julianne Moore is terrific as always, stylish, perhaps too much so. The art direction and costumes are great. The main problem with the film is that none of the characters are appealing. But, it's worth watching.

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Spangle

Feb 24, 2017

Savage Grace, in spite of being listed as a drama, is a film that plays akin to a psychological thriller. It also likely ranks as one of the worst films one could watch with their parents. It strikes me as though that would be quite awkward. Based on the true story of Barbara BaekelandSavage Grace, in spite of being listed as a drama, is a film that plays akin to a psychological thriller. It also likely ranks as one of the worst films one could watch with their parents. It strikes me as though that would be quite awkward. Based on the true story of Barbara Baekeland (Julianne Moore) and her son Antony (Eddie Redmayne), the film details their life beginning with the birth of Antony. Moving frequently around Europe, separating from her husband, Antony beginning to explore his homosexuality, and Barbara trying to turn him straight by having sex with her son (yep), the film culminates with the real life murder of Barbara by Antony. Shocking, scandalous, and oddly horrifying, Savage Grace is not a perfect film, but it is an incredibly unique psychological drama blended with character study.

As always, Julianne Moore is tremendous. A deeply twisted character, Moore nails the role, as does Eddie Redmayne. Both are incredibly cold, chilling, and distant. Neither wear their hearts on their sleeves, opting for a far more reserved demeanor that feeds into their method speaking. In this film, it almost sounds like somebody else is talking for Redmayne and he is nervously looking around to see who is talking. As these eccentric billionaires, both are incredibly believable. Suffering from schizophrenia and an Oedipus complex, Redmayne's Antony is terrific constantly (to an annoying degree) saying "mommy". By the end, when they actually sleep with each other, it is entirely believable even if it is still incredibly shocking. The ground work had been laid due to how odd these two are, which contributed to how odd their relationship was and how open both were. Yet, Savage Grace is not perfect. In its depiction of schizophrenia the film misses the mark. Though Redmayne does it justice, the film seems to forget Antony has schizophrenia until the very end. Done through voice-over and the epilogue, the film forgets to develop that angle of him and leaves it up to the imagination of viewer. While this is rewarding sometimes, it can also leave the audience in the dark too much and unaware anything is wrong with him beyond being the garden variety odd guy. In essence, the film is far too focused on the incest and not the schizophrenia that is also a culprit in why Antony killed his mother. Instead, they just paint him as a mama's boy who goes around saying "mommy" and bringing men/women home while providing voice-over about how much he and his mother discussed his sex life. Thus, the film sort of forgets to develop one of its major parts.

The film also struggle until Redmayne arrives. Flying through his youth, the film is in a rush to start building up to the incest and cannot do much when he is a kid. The end result is a smattering of shots from a collection of cities that simply goes by too fast and nothing ever comes of these sequences. In essence, they are ground work and an introduction to the characters and the only part that matters is when Barbara goes home with a strange man in front of her husband. At that point, we know she is wild. Otherwise, skipping the beginning and jumping to Redmayne would be well advised. The film also struggles at the end. No spoilers, since it is true, but when he kills his mother, it is far too abrupt. They are just talking and boom. It is likely true, but it simply feels too anticlimactic. Only those really paying attention could see him grab the knife and decide to stab her. That said, the follow-up is decidedly cold blooded and drives home just how messed up he is in his mind.

Missing the mark in the beginning and slightly off-the-mark at the end, Savage Grace finds its groove in the middle when Moore and Redmayne can go toe-to-toe. Both giving disconnected upper class psychopath performances, the two are cold, calculated, and deranged. Depicting the incest in a somehow-not-exploitative fashion, the film turns it itself into an absolutely chilling psychological drama that is a thoroughly twisted watch. That said, were it not for Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne, Savage Grace would be a far worse film.… Expand

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amheretojudge

Feb 28, 2018

you're tired of everything..

Savage Grace When there is an unusual plot or indigestible track like this, it becomes very essential for the feature to be character driven to justify the nature of it which fails on all levels in here. Not only is Tom Kalin, a weak link in this project butyou're tired of everything..

Savage Grace

When there is an unusual plot or indigestible track like this, it becomes very essential for the feature to be character driven to justify the nature of it which fails on all levels in here. Not only is Tom Kalin, a weak link in this project but also the writer Howard A. Rodman whose adaptation is too thin to possess any logical reasoning. Whilst on the other side, performance is what factors and favors in as Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne both are in their A game. Savage Grace fails to deliver in any level due to lack of proper and experienced supervising of the makers and also for it never had enough material in the first place.… Expand

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DavidM

Jul 3, 2008

Some of the scenes feature brilliant acting and the film has great visual and aural appeal, but I never felt emotionally invested in any of the characters - I felt like the director was more interested in flirting with alienating the audience with his characters' flaws and indecency Some of the scenes feature brilliant acting and the film has great visual and aural appeal, but I never felt emotionally invested in any of the characters - I felt like the director was more interested in flirting with alienating the audience with his characters' flaws and indecency than in weaving meaning into the story.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

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