''Savage Grace'' is a 2007 drama film directed by

Tom Kalin Tom Kalin (born 1962) is a screenwriter, film director, producer, and professor of experimental film at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee. His debut feature, ''Swoon'', is considered an integral part of the New Queer Cinema. In addition to h ...

and written by Howard A. Rodman, based on the book ''Savage Grace'' by Natalie Robins and Steven M.L. Aronson. The story is based on the highly dysfunctional relationship between heiress and socialite

Barbara Daly Baekeland Barbara Daly Baekeland (September 28, 1921 – November 17, 1972) was a wealthy American socialite who was murdered by her son, Antony "Tony" Baekeland. She was the ex-wife of Brooks Baekeland, who was the grandson of Leo Baekeland, inventor of B ...

and her son, Antony. The film stars

Julianne Moore Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent films, ...

Stephen Dillane Stephen John Dillane (; born 27 March 1957) is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Leonard Woolf in the 2002 film '' The Hours'', Stannis Baratheon in ''Game of Thrones'', and Thomas Jefferson in the 2008 HBO miniseries ''John Ad ...

, Eddie Redmayne, Elena Anaya, and Hugh Dancy. It was an official selection at the 2007

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

, the

2007 Sundance Film Festival The 2007 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 18 until January 28, 2007, in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah and Ogden, Utah. It was the 23-rd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was '' Chic ...

and the

2007 Cannes Film Festival The 60th Cannes Film Festival ran from 16 to 27 May 2007. The President of the Jury was British director Stephen Frears. Twenty two films from twelve countries were selected to compete for the Palme d'Or. The awards were announced on 26 May. '' 4 ...

Plot

The film is based on the true story of

(Moore), her husband Brooks Baekeland (Dillane), heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune, and their only child Antony (Redmayne), who was diagnosed with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...

. The story begins with Antony's birth and follows the family to the time of his arrest for the murder of his mother.

Critical reception

Critics gave the film mixed reviews. The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

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'' has a 38% of approval, based on 89 reviews — the consensus reads "though visually compelling, the lamentable characters in ''Savage Grace'' make for difficult viewing."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, another review aggregator, reported the film had an average score of 51 out of 100, based on 28 reviews.

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...

writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' gave the film four out of five stars, describing it as "a gripping, coldly brilliant and tremendously acted movie."

Accolades

''Savage Grace'' was nominated for an

Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independen ...

in 2008.

Sam Green

After the film opened, Baekeland's former lover,

Samuel Adams Green Samuel Adams Green (May 20, 1940 – March 4, 2011) was an American art curator and director, most associated with his promotion of American pop art, particularly the early works of his friend Andy Warhol. Early life Born in Boston on May 20 ...

(played by Dancy in the film), wrote an article pointing out that elements in the film were factually inaccurate, such as the ''

ménage à trois A () is a domestic arrangement and committed relationship with three people in polyamorous romantic or sexual relations with each other, and often dwelling together; typically a traditional marriage between a man and woman along with anothe ...

'' scene of Barbara, Antony, and Sam having sex. Green then took legal action against the film makers, which was still unresolved at the time of his death.

References

External links

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