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Savage Grace

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Savage Grace (2008)

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Reviews Counted: 84

Fresh: 34

Rotten:50

Average Rating: 5/10

Consensus: Though visually compelling, the lamentable characters in Savage Grace make for difficult viewing.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:May 28, 2008 Limited

Box Office: $243,055

Synopsis: Like his landmark debut SWOON, Tom Kalin's long-awaited follow-up is based on a shocking true story. This time around, Kalin uses the celebrated nonfiction book by Natalie Robins and Steven M.L.... Like his landmark debut SWOON, Tom Kalin's long-awaited follow-up is based on a shocking true story. This time around, Kalin uses the celebrated nonfiction book by Natalie Robins and Steven M.L. Aronson as his source material in order to revisit one of the 20th century's most notorious family tragedies. Julianne Moore (SAFE, SHORT CUTS) plays Barbara Daly, a damaged but beautiful woman who elevates her status when she marries Brooks Baekeland (Stephen Dillane), heir to a plastics fortune. The birth of a son, Tony (Eddie Redmayne), does nothing to solve Brooks and Barbara's conflicted relationship. As Tony grows older and the family relocates from New York City to Paris to Spain to Ibiza throughout the 1950s and '60s, Barbara's fanatical smothering has left her son a sheepish wreck. The fact that he's homosexual only makes matters worse. Unable to escape from his mother's clutches, Tony begins to lose his mind, spurring a fatal act that will destroy the family. SAVAGE GRACE finds Moore delivering one of her most electrifying and challenging performances. She brings humanity and credibility to a character who is deeply damaged. Kalin's bold decision to present six chapters in the family's saga, as opposed to taking a more traditional route, results in a richer and more intellectual work. Let it be known, SAVAGE GRACE has some truly dark material that will shock many viewers. But Kalin's artistry as a director keeps it from feeling like mere exploitation. [More]

Starring: Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Eddie Redmayne, Elena Anaya

Starring: Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Eddie Redmayne, Elena Anaya, Unax Ugalde, Belen Rueda, Hugh Dancy

Director: Tom Kalin

Director: Tom Kalin
Screenwriter: Howard A. Rodman
Producer: Iker Monfort, Katie Rournel, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon
Composer: Fernando Velazquez

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Release:

Sep 30, 2008

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Reviews for Savage Grace

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix

A sick-room torpor hangs heavily about this masterfully controlled, elegantly composed movie by Tom Kalin.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
10/18/08
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
10/18/08
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Provocative but frustratingly shallow.

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
10/18/08
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

The subject matter could be considered shocking and the film is difficult to watch at times; the director, Tom Kalin, isn't pulling his punches, but he refrains from giving any of the material the showy Hollywood treatment.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
10/18/08
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

While the pace occasionally flags and there are times when we wonder where Kalin is leading us, he maintains a pervasive sense of dread and unease throughout that makes the chilling climax seem both shocking and inevitable.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
10/18/08
Bruce Demara
Toronto Star
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This tale of class differences, social climbing, illicit affairs, incest and murder creates an emotional wall between the characters and the audience.

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
10/01/08
Pete Hammond
Hollywood.com

For all the Baekalands’ outré behavior, the movie is peculiarly timid at times.

Full Review Source: Pajiba | comment Comment
09/10/08
Nathaniel Rogers
Pajiba

A grotesque waste of time about terrible people I'd rather not have known.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
07/31/08
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

The performance is so oversized that, just as Barbara cowed her husband and son into submission, the other actors seem to tiptoe around Moore.

Full Review Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI) | comment Comment
07/28/08
Rob Thomas
Capital Times (Madison, WI)

...more savagery than grace...

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
07/25/08
Jim Lane
Sacramento News & Review

Savage Grace is a movie that badly wants to shock you. The only thing that might raise an eyebrow here, however, is the shocking rate at which everyone lights up a cigarette every five minutes.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
07/18/08
Steve Davis
Austin Chronicle

Ultimately, I felt more sorry for Moore - giving her all to a skeezy, tabloid psychodrama - than for her self-absorbed character.

Full Review Source: Salt Lake Tribune | comment Comment
07/18/08
Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune

An appallingly handsome and creepy film entirely suiting the subject matter and repellent and alluring in equal measure. If you relish dishy tales of the depraved rich, it's like Thanksgiving in a movie.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
07/11/08
Shawn Levy
Oregonian

Director Tom Kalin, who's making his second feature after 1992's Swoon, tells the real-life story of the Baekeland family in a subdued whisper, like a servant muttering backstairs about a rich master's failings.

Full Review Source: Charlotte Observer | comment Comment
07/11/08
Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer

A film as harsh, brittle and unbalanced as its characters.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
07/11/08
Empire Magazine

The film boasts another sensational performance by Moore and a welcome return to feature directing by Kalin.

Full Review Source: KPBS.org | comment Comment
07/08/08
Beth Accomando
KPBS.org

Kalin and Moore have done such a fine job creating this monster, you'll be inclined to forgive them for never quite figuring out what to do with her.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Weekly | comment Comment
07/06/08
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly

Though the characters may be repellent, the film permits you to feel sympathy.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
07/04/08
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

[Savage Grace] is like a Vanity Fair article; it's eye candy, with ... a creepy dysfunctional family drama thrown in to give it added value.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
07/03/08
Beverly Berning
culturevulture.net
 
 
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Latest News for Savage Grace

January 04, 2009: Be forewarned, watching this movie about the frustrated, bored to tears existence of the elite, can be contagious. A depressing and meaningless, smutty glimpse into the depraved family lives of stuffy designer couch potatoes. Opens in new window
More...

January 03, 2009: Be forewarned, watching this movie about the frustrated, bored to tears existence of the elite, can be contagious. A depressing and meaningless, smutty glimpse into the depraved family lives of stuffy designer couch potatoes. Opens in new window
More...

January 03, 2009: ActorsAndCrew Magazine: Be forewarned, watching this movie about the frustrated, bored to tears existence of the elite, can be contagious. A depressing and meaningless, smutty glimpse into the depraved family lives of stuffy designer couch potatoes." Opens in new window
More...

June 01, 2008: Morose melodrama revisits tragedies visited upon dysfunctional family blessed with Bakelite plastics fortune. Opens in new window
More...

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