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Title: Grey Gardens (TV Movie 2009)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Drew Barrymore | ... | Little Edie | |
| Jessica Lange | ... | Big Edie | |
| Jeanne Tripplehorn | ... | Jackie O. | |
| Ken Howard | ... | Phelan Beale | |
| Kenneth Welsh | ... | Max Gordon | |
| Arye Gross | ... | Albert Maysles | |
| Louis Ferreira | ... | David Maysles (as Justin Louis) | |
| Daniel Baldwin | ... | Julius 'Cap' Krug | |
| Malcolm Gets | ... | George 'Gould' Strong | |
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Louis Grise | ... | Young Buddy (as Louis Grisé) |
| Joshua Peace | ... | Adult Buddy | |
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Neil Babcock | ... | Young Phelan Jr. |
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Ben Carlson | ... | Adult Phelan Jr. |
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Olivia Waldriff | ... | Young Jackie |
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Neil Girvan | ... | Concierge |
In 1973, documentary filmmaking brothers Albert Maysles and David Maysles decide to change the focus of their latest project from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to her aunt and older cousin, mother and daughter Edith Bouvier Beale - called Big Edie - and Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale, who were found living in squalor and isolation in the longtime family mansion, Grey Gardens, in East Hampton, New York. Through flashbacks starting in 1936, the path mother and daughter take from their socialite past to the time that the Mayles brothers show their completed film is shown. Big Edie's husband/Little Edie's father, Phelan Beale, controlled the family money, which included providing singing lessons to Big Edie with musician Gould Strong, with who she had more than a musical interest. Big Edie saw herself as a singer, first and foremost. Mother and father also controlled Little Edie's life, they who wanted her to stay at Grey Gardens rather than pursue her dream of becoming a professional ... Written by Huggo
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Well, you can't go wrong using Big and Little Edie as subject matter, be it in a documentary, a movie, or a musical. This beautifully photographed and opulent "Grey Gardens," starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore as Big and Little Edie, again demonstrates what compelling people they were.
Not having seen any documentary yet, or the musical, which had some powerful emotions expressed in the music ("Another Winter in a Summer Town" as an example), I can only go by this particular "Grey Gardens." The story of the Beales is sad, harrowing, frustrating, and sometimes funny. Both women are magnificent in their roles, particularly Lange, though my understanding is that the real Big Edie was a much better singer than shown here. Barrymore makes a stunning young Edie, living in New York and trying to make it as an actress and captures the mature woman - it's quite a stretch, too.
What's missing here is exactly what happened to these two beautiful and wealthy women, and I'm not sure it's covered in any other material about them. Why didn't Big Edie remarry? Why didn't Edie "The Body Beautiful" Beale get a rich husband? Why did the other children allow them to live the way they did? Was Little Edie untalented, or could she have had success as an actress? Were they always mentally unstable or eccentric or make each other that way? I don't know after watching "Grey Gardens," though I'm sure Lange and Barrymore made some decisions about those things in order to play their roles.
The nice thing about "Grey Gardens," for me, anyway, is that Little Edie finally got what she wanted in life - fame (well, notoriety), the ability to perform, money, and a warm place to live. I'm happy about that for her. I just wish I knew more about the psychology that led up to all of it.