To paint this world in a picture would be to create a faulty masterpiece of duality, for all is not as it seems in this provocative tragedy. This world is a world of excess where money can hide the sins but not the guilt.
Spanning three decades, this fly-on-the-wall drama sees a family gripped by both passion and coldness in which personal insecurities and resentment result in a breakdown of family hierarchy and where son, mother and husband merely become flexible and disposable titles.
Julianne Moore plays the erratic and insecure aspiring socialite who marries far beyond her status and struggles to stop herself from drowning in a crystalline world of aristocracy. As usual Moore's acting is faultless, slipping as it does between antagonist and victim with easy grace, though her dialogue is often confused by top heavy narration.
Meanwhile Stephen Dillane who plays Brooks Baekeland, a master of arrogance and cool, proves himself a formidable adversary to Moore's unpredictable eccentricity. Embarrassed by his wife's increasingly desperate behaviour, Baekeland shuns the life she maps out for them to elope with his son's one night stand. Brilliantly executed, Dillane's natural approach shows him as the only solid character in the film.
At times Savage Grace is irritatingly tasteless with its over stylised dialogues and flowery displays. The son (played by Eddie Redmayne) seems old before his time and the script fails to properly highlight his schizophrenia which inadvertently leads to the film's climax.
The landscapes are well shot but fail to make an impression on the story, being more like temporary visions of beauty that soon dissolve into the night as this rich American family, living off the backs of the locals, drown the colour and life out of the world in which they live.
Though at times superbly acted, overall the film seems lost in superficiality. Instead of an exploration of the issues behind the family's dysfunctional behaviours, we are given just a brief overview that leaves us rather dazed and confused.
Two stars out of five
Feeds