Director: Tom Kalin (Swoon)
Writers: Howard A. Rodman
Producers: Pamela Koffler, Iker Monfort, Katie Roumel, Christine Vachon
Starring: Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Eddie Redmayne, Unax Ugalde, Belén Rueda
MPAA Rating: NR
Running time: 97 min

The story of Barbara Daly Baekeland is a sad one. A model and would be Hollywood star, she married into the Bakelite plastic fortune and a life of wealth and security but money did little to hide the sour center and Barbara’s life ended suddenly and quite shockingly at the hands of her son. One would think that a story loaded with sex, incest, social prowess and murder would be shocking and perhaps a little disturbing but unfortunately, Tom Kalin’s film is none of those things.

Adapted from the non-fiction book by Natalie Robins and Steven M. L. Aronson, Savage Grace starts off shortly after the birth of Barbara’s son Tony and immediately one knows things aren’t quite right in the household. In the opening scene, Barbara and her husband Brooks discuss the evening’s social calendar but the conversation is cold and distant, like business partners negotiating rather than husband and wife conversing about how to fill their evening. Kalin wastes no time setting up the relationship between Barbara and Brooks and as the film progresses, we quickly come to realize that these two should never have been together. Barbara is happy enough to entertain and be seen in society whereas Brooks, a decorated army officer, takes every opportunity to complain and take pot shots at the fact that he’s done nothing to earn his place in society, constantly reminding people, including himself, that it was simply handed down by his father. Yet, even as he badmouths himself, he does nothing to change his situation. Young Tony is stuck somewhere in the middle. He is obviously in need and constantly fishing for his father’s approval but when Brooks pays no attention to him, Barbara steps in and it’s clear that from early on, there’s an odd attachment between mother and son that runs deeper than simply familial love. The film culminates with an incestuous threesome which is the catalyst of Barbara’s eventual murder.

Though it beautifully captures the various periods the story travels through, the film fails at nearly everything else. Julianne Moore has, time and again, proven that she is capable of pulling off the smothered housewife, at once physically in control yet falling apart just beneath the surface and here, she once again succeeds. Unfortunately, she’s simply not given enough to work with. The story jumps from one decade to the next and from lavish home to lavish home, each time giving us a little more of Barbara’s “falling to pieces” moments, each one of which is sweeter than the last (and the best of which being the moment when she tracks Brooks down at the airport with his new girl friend) but she has no one to play those moments off of and they come and go so quickly that they’re simply minor spikes of emotion. The airport scene is a moment of triumphant emotional release but just as quickly as it builds up steam, it deflates and the film’s pacing immediately returns to a comfortable and boring lull. Eddie Redmayne who plays Barbara’s grown son and who shares a major part of the film with Moore, tries to keep up but his character is simply too reserved and quiet to compete with Moore’s overbearing Barbara. The two small pleasures, aside from Moore, within the entire film is a small appearance from Hugh Dancy as Barbara’s walker and confidante and of Belén Rueda as a socialite who tries to introduce Barbara to Spanish society.

Though Moore plays her character from one extreme to the other, her performance is simply not enough to salvage the film. Perhaps because of editing or perhaps because of Howard A. Rodman’s script, the film feels truncated at 20 minute intervals, and with each new jump forward in time, the characters feel a little further away. Ultimately, they’re not given enough time to interact and as they move through the years, there’s little to convince the audience to pull for either of Barbara, Tony or, for that matter, Brooks and when the relationships and individuals really start to fall apart, there’s an odd lack of emotion. There also seems to be a missed opportunity in the writing off of Brook so early in the story. Not having read the book, I don’t know if this is also missing from the novel, but I would have liked to see more of Stephen Dillane’s Brooks.

The biggest problem with Tom Kalin’s Savage Grace is that it’s dull. That, in and of itself, is quite the accomplishment when one takes into account that the film is beautiful, technically solid and sports good performances all around but as a package, it doesn’t work. It may be worthwhile to visit this on DVD down the road simply to watch Moore lose it because even out of context, her scenes are raw and emotional unfortunately, they’re also not enough to sell the picture.

Links:
IMDb profile
Official Site
Flixster Profile for Savage Grace