garittaa1 Overall, I thought "Savage Grace" was an okay movie. The movie portrayed the story in a perfect way Juliane Moore did a good job from what I have read playing Barbara Baekeland. It really showed the dysfunctional, and allegedly incestuous relationship between the not so "perfect" socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland and her son, Antony. I liked this movie/story because it really shows how money does not create happiness. One of my favorite quotes was one that Antony says,"One of the uses of money is that it allows us not to live with the consequences of our mistakes." I thought the narration coming from Antony allowed the audience to feel for both him and his mother. Barbara played by Moore, was able to act so well that she was both the victim and yet the perpetrator which was interesting to watch.

ciao-tom The main theme of this film people lighting cigarettes and smoking them.I find this ugly to watch and not very interesting.I gather there is also another story line but if you want to follow it you have to try and ignore the main topic.The main topic is smoking. I was unable to get past this and follow the other story line.Added to which the acting is diabolically poor.Actors with no class, trying to act in the way in which they think people with class behave.Give it a miss.

Roedy Green This is the approximately true life story of Bakelite heir Antony Baekeland starting at birth. His parents are swingers of a sort. His mother is not so much motivated by sex as by manipulating people. She enjoys humiliating her husband. Juliane Moore portrays the mother not so much as an cruel villain, but as someone very self-centred, selfish, with a low tolerance for boredom. She like to make a scene just for the entertainment value of it as for the fun of shocking the onlookers.Barney Clark plays Anthony at 12. He a weird kid, simultaneously infantile and precocious. His parents keep him isolated from other children, possibly because they fear homosexual sex play.Eddie Redmayne plays Anthony at 19. He looks completely different from Barney Clark. It was not immediately clear this new character was Anthony. He reminded me of Bill Gates with his way of speaking, deadpan and freckles. Redmayne has startling sharply angled features and very thick lips. At first I found him unsympathetic, but then warmed to him as his parents screwed him over.Dad steals his girl friend. Mom shares his boyfriend. I would think Anthony, who was an heir, would have bolted, but he did not. There is a scene when Mom seduces Antony by grinding her pelvis against his crotch until she comes then giving him a hand job. It was not so much seduction, as she decided, and he did as he was told. This is pretty raw.The movie meanders along without apparent direction other than parents behaving worse and worse, keeping Anthony socially isolated, and Anthony getting weirder and weirder. But it is a real life and real lives don't have scriptwriters.Much of the movie is not clear unless you read the closing credits which are in quite small type which tell the events that happened after the police arrived at the end.Hint: pay specially close to attention to anything to do with a dog collar or a pet dog that "died".

samoozles I watched this film without knowing anything about it, so after the events of the film unfolded I was shocked to learn that they were based on real events. The character of Tony reminded me a bit of Sebastian from Cruel Intentions as he was a well spoken, high brow, pretentious sort of fellow. He was not very likable but the film did incite sympathy for his situation. The film chronicles his life and the series of events that most likely contributed to his mental instability and I feel like he was merely an instrument for those around him to use as they desired. Barbara was an abhorrent woman but very well acted by Jullianne Moore. The film is aesthetically very compelling - a series of lustrous backdrops with a patina of age and degradation, which perhaps could be interpreted as some sort of metaphor I am sure. I wouldn't watch it again because I found it quite disturbing and harrowing but I can see the appeal in this film and would recommend it to someone who enjoyed watching a film like the Virgin Suicides.