Savage Grace (2007)

Powerful

As Good As It Gets

A Major Disappointment

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Savage GraceWhen 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.

I remember reading about this film and thinking Yuck! No way do I want to see this. Then years later I read the novel and thought Hmmm - how on earth would someone turn this compilation of correspondence, excerpts of novels and interviews into a film? (Did not make the connection with the aforementioned movie review). So I had to find out, and I must say it was done beautifully. Spoiler follows.Of course, you can only fill 90 minutes with so much detail. I feel, however, that the film should have included Tony's psychiatric history; most people watching the movie would not realize how profoundly ill he was. The casting was perfect, particularly Redmayne and Moore, who deliver the charm and intelligence that defined these people. The film perfectly depicts how self-absorbed Mama and Papa Baekeland were, but misses the sometimes hilarious antics of the wealthy circle they moved in.

I loved this movie.....loved the locations in the film; made you feel like you were there; what kept me intrigued was Julianne Moore's performance....I was shocked when I got to the end of the movie and realized this was based on true events.....I highly recommend this film. Sick and twisted but well done. The son in this movie also provides an outstanding performance. The music in the film gave you a real feel of the time period these events occurred. Some parts of the movie may not be for everyone, but it gives you an in depth view of how twisted everyone is in this family. This movie makes me want to read the book and learn more about the woman portrayed in the film.

SAVAGE GRACE – CATCH IT ( B- ) The movie is based upon famous socialite Barbara Baekeland who was stabbed to death by her gay son Tony Baekeland. The premises of the movie is really promising & to be honest while watching the movie I didn't knew that it was actually based upon true story it was on the end when they started to tell what happened to Tony after killing her mother, then I came to know its based upon true story. The story is really complex, intriguing, interesting and extremely shocking, it will blow your mind like mine if you don't know what you are getting into. The two most shocking scenes for me were when the mother (Julianne Moore) and son (Eddie Remayne) are sleeping with the same guy (Huge Dency) and at one time all three of them sleep together and make out. That was like Dreadful to watch. The second sequence is a sex scene between Mother (Julianne Moore) & Son (Eddie Redmayne) (it was shocking and will leave you stunned and you will think, why the hell i didn't know what it's about). Well as the story was very complex, director got hand on good actors but sadly he couldn't convey the story convincingly though the movie's look is really artistic but its the phase and dialogues makes movie really effective and ground breaking. Julianne Moore as the rich spoiled socialite is fabulous; I think she did her best though she didn't get Award wining powerful moments in this twisted movie. Eddie Redmayne is really good, he tried his best to grape the complexities of the character at best. Huge Dency, well after this I realize that I don't like him as an Actor at all! He is just annoying to even watch now (I don't know why). I think the movie could have been better if we would have more into minds of Julianne and Edie's characters because on the surface things weren't as disturbing as what happened in the end. Maybe Julianne didn't wanted his son to be gay and tried masturbating or whatever with him but they should have shown in the beginning that Julianne didn't approved of her son being gay. Anyways the complexities of the characters were a lot more then for even the director to tell in the right way. It's always very difficult to tell a true story on cellulite. Watch it! If you have guts and brains to get trough such a shocking subject matter.