Review of Savage Grace (2007) by Stuart K — 30 Dec 2012

Directed by Tom Kalin (Swoon (1992)), this is an independent film shot in Spain, which tells the tragic and unusual story of Antony Baekeland, it's a story so unbelievable, you can't believe it really happened.

The film in itself does skim over a few things, and the climax seems to happen a bit to quickly, but it does have some brilliant performances even if it is a very cold, uncomfortable film. Antony Baekeland (Eddie Redmayne) was born to Barbara Daly Baekeland (Julianne Moore) and Brooks Baekeland (Stephen Dillane), Brooks is the heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune, and he boasts of how Bakelite successfully weathered the storm of the Great Depression.

Anthony was born in New York, but he moved to Paris in the late 1950's and then onto Majorca and the Spanish-resort of Cadaques, in the mid 1960's. It was there where Anthony came out as a homosexual, much to the disapproval of Barbara, who tries to fix him by ordering prostitutes for him to have sex with, but this doesn't work, and it turns creepier after some time.

Even if you think you have a dysfunctional family, you can be assured that they're NOTHING compared to the Baekeland family, Moore is brilliant as is Redmayne, who make his name with this film, plus Kalin was able to have Barcelona double for New York, London, Majorca and Paris, which is a great achievement.