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Reviews Counted:86
Fresh:34
Rotten:52
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: Though visually compelling, the lamentable characters in Savage Grace make for difficult viewing.
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.... [More]
Starring: Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Eddie Redmayne, Elena Anaya
Director: Tom Kalin
Julianne Moore once again puts the acting pedal to the metal. Her absorption into the role actually seems better than the thankless craziness written for the character. She is the highlight of this otherwise expendable film.
Told with a spare style and a tart wit, it records sprawling events with a claustrophobic sense of intimacy.
By scrupulously avoiding melodrama, [director] Kalin ensures that the characters remain recognizably human despite their flaws and monstrous weaknesses.
The film boasts another sensational performance by Moore and a welcome return to feature directing by Kalin.
Kalin treats this predatory funhouse with a soothing screen detachment, exploring the psychological injustices and oddly alluring sensuality with careful attention to the small spaces of behavior.
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.
For that particular someone, Savage Grace could be the perfect summer chiller.ca
Top CriticIf ever there was a film to extinguish any envy of the lifestyles of the rich and famous, Savage Grace is it.
Savage Grace shows the family members' slide in and out of pathologies, but it doesn't sensationalize or even much pry into possible motives.
In its frigid way, Savage Grace is potent: It makes incest a state of mind.
Top CriticBlessed with a fine script, solid cast, smashing production design, and a message that drives home the notion that money isn't everything.
Given that the story concerns murder, incest and insanity, Kalin deserves credit for refusing to sensationalize the text or even draw on the melodrama but the film is too episodic and fractured, lacking the conviction and style of his first film, Swoon.
If you're looking for a movie to convince you that money does not buy happiness, you've come to the right place.
Wrenching, mature drama is a showcase for Julianne Moore.
The meandering story of a wealthy, worthless family of society humping layabouts.
A feel-bad peek at how the other half lives showing that no one knows what goes on behind closed doors.
When [Moore] embarrasses her son by forcing him to read a passage from de Sade's Justine (introduction by Georges Bataille!), ... it's a potent familial cruelty to place alongside the best of Davis and Crawford.
...a ravishing visual strategy for a story of such dark struggle.
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.
Though the characters may be repellent, the film permits you to feel sympathy.
Top Critic
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. 
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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.
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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."
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June 01, 2008:
Morose melodrama revisits tragedies visited upon dysfunctional family blessed with Bakelite plastics fortune.
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