Review: Savage Grace (2007)

[tom elce]

Savage Grace (2007)
0.5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Tom Elce
Directed by Tom Kalin
Cast: Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Eddie Redmayne, Elena Anaya,
Hugh Dancy, Belén Rueda, Anne Reid, Abel Folk, Barney Clark
Rated: R (MPAA), 15 (BBFC)

In the unbearable "Savage Grace" - director Tom Kalin's first feature-
length film since 1992's "Swoon" - the characters seem to cringe along
with you, countless exchanges between them followed by strained facial
grimaces and eyes-closed moments where they each reflect on how
obnoxious and downright awful they are. The only one who comes out
relatively unscathed is Julianne Moore as real-life murder victim
Barbara Baekeland, if only because she's become so used to wasting her
talent on futile garbage that, by now, it doesn't really make a
difference. She's front-and-center in director Kalin's and
screenwriter Howard A. Rodman's dramatization of Baekaland's life
leading up to her murder, which is at once more about shock value and
all-out pomposity.

More shocking than its scenes of sodomy and incest is the film's
wholesale ineptitude, shots so deadahead and bland it becomes more
attractive a proposition to look at the walls around you. Every
dramatic scene, too, is accompanied by ominous music, each new
development in the film's immensely synthesised plot coming across as
heavy-handed and (occasionally) hysterical. Mostly, though, the
shortcomings of "Savage Grace" make for a joyless bore, leaving you
rolling your eyes, wincing in discomfort or groaning.

Based on the true story of the relationship between Barbara Baekeland,
a woman married above her class to Bakelite plastics' heir Brooks
(Stephen Dillane), and her son Tony (Eddie Redmayne) that was marred
by incest and altogether dysfunction, "Savage Grace" aims to analyse
the events that ultimately led to the former's murder at the hands of
Tony. Mostly, though, it paints them as broad and largely
reprehensible folk, the kind that talk with their eyes open and (oh
Lord no) wear self-satisfied grins despite contributing nothing of
worth to absolutely anything.

Julianne Moore is the best thing about "Savage Grace," which isn't
really saying a lot. She gives her all playing someone you (if only
from watching the film in question) wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.
Having failed to answer back to Toni Collette's acting prowess in
"Like Minds," Eddie Redmayne now fails to favourably compare to Moore.
He, like the out-of-form Stephen Dillane, is a horror to watch on
screen, constantly making you wish he'd disappear from sight whenever
the camera mercilessly turns on him.

With its crude at social commentary and purile portrayal of bizarre
sexual relationships, "Savage Grace" brings to mind a Larry Clark-
Michael Haneke co-production bereft of either one's gift for social
incisiveness and filmmaking talent. Here we have a dank and dense
waste of film reel, equipped with some of the most poorly staged sex
scenes you're likely to see (the most prevalent concern when watching
Barbara entertain her own son is not the shock this scene is intended
to inspire, but its broad staginess) and characters you'd rather not
spend ninety-seven minutes with. Congrats, Mr. Kalin, for making a
film almost completely lacking appeal.