Savage Grace

IFC Films | Release Date: May 30, 2008

5.7	USER SCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Ratings

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[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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pdw123Sep 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 storyUnfortunately, 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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FilipeNetoOct 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 familyWhat 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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