Savage Grace

Review By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Incest is never a comfortable subject, and it’s always a tough sell. That doesn’t bode well for Savage Grace, a true-life drama about socialite Barbara Baekeland and her unnatural relationship with her mentally unstable son. Especially since this sordid tale comes on the heels of another horrifying real life incest case that was all over the news a few weeks ago: Austrian Josef Fritzl kept his daughter locked in a basement for 24 years and fathered seven of her children. While Barbara Baekeland’s story doesn’t quite sink to that level of depravity, it’s brutal nonetheless.

Based on the novel of the same name, director Tom Kalin fashions the movie adaptation with a stylish sheen that masks its underlying perversity. The film spans decades from 1946 to 1972. Julianne Moore plays Barbara, with fiery red hair and a fiery personality to match. Once an aspiring actress, Barbara marries Brooks Baekeland (Stephen Dillane), heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune, and the couple enjoys a life full of money and free from work. The two have a tempestuous marriage that doesn’t get any better with the birth of their only son, Tony (played as a young adult by Eddie Redmayne). Barbara dominates her marriage like she does a social gathering or a dinner party.

As the family country-hops from one wealthy destination to another, Brooks grows more distant and Tony grows inappropriately closer to his mother. Brooks finally leaves Barbara for a younger woman and refuses to see Tony completely at a crucial point in Tony’s life. He’s just coming to terms with his homosexuality when his father abandons him. Barbara, although she has sexual hang-ups of her own, doesn’t much care for her son’s proclivities. Apparently, the story indicates that she attempted to “cure” Tony of his homosexuality by seducing him herself. She only drives him further into madness which leads up to the film’s final tragic act of violence.

While the taboo circumstances are enough to keep people away (many scenes were met with groans and sounds of disgust from the audience during the screening), the actors deserve some credit for taking on the dark material and making the best of it. Moore is top notch in a tough part. She plays the monster, yet she does it in cheerfully colorful ensembles and poised façade intact. Redmayne gives the right dose of creepiness as the messed up Tony, dealing with his father’s abandonment and his mother’s inappropriate closeness. It seems he’s making a habit out of playing the role of “son seeking parental approval” that he first showcased in The Good Shepherd. Though I wish there had been some more indication of