Review of Savage Grace (2007) by Tasha W — 23 Jul 2008

A sordid tale of the people who seem to have it all, yet end up with absolutely nothing. Julianne Moore gives a captivating performance as tragic nouveau riche girl Barbara Daly Baekeland whose charming facade slowly falls apart to reveal a bitter and empty ugliness that not even a life of immense privilege was able to help.

The main characters all have that jaded air of listless ennui, the inevitable outcome of living in a world that is completely yours for the taking, a world above the social norms and taboos presented to the rest of us out of the necessity of having to sustain an ordinary existence.

The characters have no boundaries, they have the freedom to do whatever they feel like with some dire consequences, particularly the increasingly inappopriate and ultimately literal Freudian relationship that develops between Barbara and her son, Antony.

The editing was a bit choppy, the narrative not as seamless as I would have liked, as well as insufficient character development, although I did enjoy the cinematography which I thought helped to highlight the beauty of their lives that unfortunately only existed on the surface.