Review of Savage Grace (2007) by Lauren H — 26 Mar 2009

This would not be a firm favorite and trouble is, I can't quite quantify what this is. The performances were superb, soulful and matched up to the complexity of the subject matter - Julianne Moore was nothing short of stupendous with her esoteric motives gently cloaked by her humanity. I say humanity - I had to reach deep to find it, forgive her an awful lot and open my mind to the possibility of such a complex relationship between mother and son.

Its ben written about, acted out by the National Theatre and deliberated by psychologists before this mythical "Oedipus" Greek tale. Tony, your Oedipus and King of Thebes did not kill his father and marry his mother - the plot was slightly skewed in that sense, and not strictly that of Sigmund Freud. There was however, the neurosis in childhood, and although not abundantly clear in his childhood, the dependancy on his mother grew increasingly apparent - an exclusive love however was simply not the case, and nor was excessive jealousy displayed toward his father.

In hindsight, the desire to sleep with one's mother was an extremely uncomfortable situation to be faced with - she enjoyed, encouraged and enthused in it more than he. The fact of the matter is he neither discouraged it nor anathematized it and the fact it may be abhorrent to many individuals, some do harbor strong feelings towards their parents. It's comprehensible at least.

How Eddie Redmayne played the role, makes the film worth watching in itself - his ability to reflect the transitional difficulties Tony had with separating himself from his mother, is marvelous. Whilst most would wish to flee the nest as soon as the first paycheck arrived, he instead became her husband of sorts, with his transitional stages being carved around where she was in the world, not where he necessarily wanted to be. His attitude toward her reflected that perfectly with the last scene of the film almost making you quite disgusted at his brusque behavior and yet it was somehow understandable.

The essence of it I believe is that Tony never had the confidence to think independently from Barbara - who indeed looked after Tony was always in questions and his sense of abandonment made this dependancy seem all the more natural in this set of circumstances.

I thank Moore for making this bearable, because the subject is not. She did a damn fine job, as she always does. Disturbing, challenging and educating - a tragedy you can well imagine Greek audiences reveled in. I did for the first and the last time tonight. Glad however I considered it.