Movie Review: Savage Grace

I saw Savage Grace not even remembering the little bit I knew about it going into the film. In this case knowing the premise I think would have helped a lot. The film tells the true story of the murder of Barbara Daly Baekeland (wife of Brooks Baekeland, the grandson of the inventor of Bakelite) by her 25 year-old son Tony. The family relationships were very strange (and even incestuous) between husband and wife, mother and son, father and son's girlfriend, son and boyfriend, mother and son and son's boyfriend, etc.

The film covers about 20 years of time from 1947 to 1968. It's shot nicely and very well acted by Julianne Moore as Barbara, Stephen Dillane as the father Brooks, and Eddie Redmayne as the son Tony. My problem was that I just didn't care about any of these very strange characters. None were sympathetic. The film mostly shows arguments and sexual and drug encounters and doesn't have much of a narrative. I was really bored at times.

I saw this as part of the Independent Film Festival of Boston. This was only the third showing in the US and the director was there and answered questions afterwards. The film is being released unrated. While there is very little explicit nudity, the director is sure it would get an NC-17 based on the content. The film is based on a book of the same title and the real story is apparently much more bizarre than what's presented in the film.