Savage Grace

I suppose that the real life story is terrible, but by seeing this movie I could not tell as this movie is more a portrait of decadence and dysfunction in the lives of those extremely wealthy that do nothing and end up with too much time in their hands.

I have seen quite a few French movies with similar themes and found then engaging and with great rhythm and actors performances; but, this one is far away from any of those French movies as it never really develops well any of the main characters and looks like an intrusion to some moments of their lives.

The movie is based in the real life of the Baekeland family that is wealthy because the grandfather invented bakelite -or plastic if you wish- and the grandson marrying beneath him to a woman, Barbara, that wanted to be accepted by society but apparently was not. The story in the movie is narrated by their son who was homosexual and truly attached to his mother, with the fall starting when the father leaves them for another woman.

The story is not bad and could have been made into a good film but I feel that the screenplay, bad direction and bad casting created an unappealing movie. Julianne Moore is here and she does her usual thing, but her character is so one dimension that fails to save the movie, then for an inexplicable reason she never ages even when the movie covers several decades.

I know that the movie was screened at the 2007 Directors’ Fortnight but after watching I can hardly understand the reason why they included it in the selection.

If you skip this one you’ll not be missing much.