SAVAGE GRACE: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
Based on the true story of charismatic and beautiful Barbara Daly (Julianne Moore), who marries above her class to Brooks Baekeland (Stephen Dillane), the dashing heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. The birth of their son Tony (Eddie Redmayne) rocks the uneasy balance in this marriage of extremes. As Tony matures and becomes increasingly close to his lonely mother, the seeds for a tragedy of spectacular decadence are sown. Between 1946 and 1972, the Baekelands' heady rise and tragic fall takes place against the backdrop of New York, Paris, Cadaqués, Mallorca and London.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
Told from Tony's (Eddie Redmayne) point of view and narrated by him from time to time (in letters to his dad), this extraordinary story reveals much about its characters; his mother Barbara (Julianne Moore) was "warm and light", while his father Brooks (Stephen Dillane) was "cold and dark". Theirs was a stressed and strained marriage of clashing cultures and natures.

Their break-up leads to Brooks eloping with young Blanca (Elena Anaya) and Barbara taking a young bi-sexual lover, Sam (Hugh Dancy) - with the openly bisexual Tony eventually drawn into that sexual relationship as the third party. Later, his sexual relationship with his mother escalates, but by then his tormented mind is in a catastrophic spiral.

Eddie Redmayne is perfectly cast as Tony, edgy and vulnerable yet with a powerful underlying determination; it's the sort of eccentric character at which Redmayne excels. Julianne Moore is splendid as the almost equally unbalanced Barbara, who crashes through her life, bouncing off people and events like a ping pong ball. Stephen Dillane is coldly effective as Brooks, and the supports are all first rate.

Tom Kalin has wrangled this extraordinary story with a great sense of cinema; it would have been so easy to misjudge the tone and present it as a freak show. And sleazy ... Instead, he shows compassion for all the characters, elevating the often sordid material to something worthwhile about the human condition.

Published August 7, 2008