Savage Grace (2007)

A dramatization of the shocking Barbara Daly Baekeland murder case, which happened in a posh London flat on Friday 17 November 1972. The bloody crime caused a stir on both sides of the Atlantic and remains one of the most memorable American Tragedies...

Director:

Tom Kalin

Writers:

Howard A. Rodman (screenplay), Natalie Robins (book)

Stars:

Julianne Moore, Eddie Redmayne, Stephen Dillane

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Julianne Moore	...	Barbara Baekeland
Stephen Dillane	...	Brooks Baekeland
Anne Reid	...	Nini Daly
Martin Huber	...	Aschwin Lippe
Minnie Marx	...	Midge Vanden Heuvel
Jim Arnold	...	Joost Vanden Heuvel
Mapi Galán	...	Simone Lippe
Barney Clark	...	Tony at 12
Abel Folk	...	Carlos Durán
Belén Rueda	...	Pilar Durán
Simón Andreu	...	Jean Pierre Souvestre
Eddie Redmayne	...	Antony Baekeland
Elena Anaya	...	Blanca
Unax Ugalde	...	Black Jake Martínez
Melina Matthews	...	Lorna Moffat

Storyline

The true story of the beautiful and charismatic but mentally unstable Barbara Daly, who married above her class to Brooks Baekeland, heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. Their only child is a failure in his father's eyes, and as he matures and becomes increasingly close to his alienated mother, the seeds for tragedy are sown.

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Plot Keywords:

son murders mother | orgasm | incest | older man younger woman relationship | male nudity | 

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Taglines:

Truth is more shocking than fiction.

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France Spain USA

Language:

English French Spanish

Release Date:

25 January 2008 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Okrutna milost

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

$4,600,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$22,311, 1 June 2008, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$434,417, 17 August 2008

Company Credits

Production Co:

Celluloid Dreams, Montfort Producciones, Killer Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Baekelands' retreat scenes were shot at an 800-year-old castle on Mallorca. It's allegedly haunted by a ghost named Blanca.

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Goofs

The ambulance at the end of the film is a mid-1970s Chevrolet van, which were not used in London.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Antony Baekeland: I was eating a tomato at tea time a few weeks ago, and I suddenly realized that mommy is not dead at all. Just very, very mysterious.

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: Sex and the City: The Movie/Savage Grace/The Strangers/Kung Fu Panda/The Foot Fist Way (2008)

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Soundtracks

Ain't Nobody Home
Written by Jerry Ragovoy
Performed by Howard Tate
Published by Chappell & Co. (ASCAP)
Courtesy of The Island Def Jam Music Group under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Money Can't Buy Happiness

None of these rich, idle people induce much empathy. Self-absorbed and shallow, the father Brooks (Stephen Dillane), the son Antony (Eddie Redmayne), and the mother Barbara (Julianne Moore) go about their lives with nary a care in the world. Yet, they manage to inflict unhappiness on each other in ways that test the limits of family love.

Complex human relationships with a tendency toward destructive behavior form the premise of "Savage Grace", a true-life story of the Baekeland family, heir to the Bakelite plastic fortune. The film's plot begins in 1946 when Antony is a baby. The plot ends with the shocking climax, in 1972.

Curiously aloof and standoffish, the film suffers from an unfortunate structure. Snippets of their family life allow us to peek in at odd moments between 1946 and 1972. We see them as they jet-set their way through Spain, Italy, and France, and hobnob with the rich and famous. At one point, Barbara, a socialite and former model, concedes a sense of apathy and boredom. "To say that one is tired of Paris is in fact to say that one is tired of life".

But because the plot spans 26 years, viewers must fill in the story gaps as best they can. Though I'm not one for lots of exposition, some added dialogue could have helped the narrative to flow better. As is, the story comes across as disjointed and at times confusing. Viewers must exercise patience to see where this slow, meandering story is leading.

The film's technical elements, including acting, are fine. The main problem is the script, and in particular the plot structure. Still, the film instructs us on how life can disintegrate for people with too much time on their hands and no sense of responsibility. That money can't buy happiness may be a cliché, but this story affirms it, at least for one very dysfunctional family that thought that it could.