Grey Gardens

Not sure why it took me so long to view this film (I rarely watch made-for-cable-television films, so that explains that.) I've seen the documentary a number of times and always came away from it wishing I would have had the opportunity to meet the Edies and, particularly, little Edie. I can't explain it, but there's just something so marvelously endearing about her. She should have been a "somebody" other than just being Jackie O.'s cousin.

Watching the 1975 Maysles record of the closing days of Grey Gardens always sets me to thinking, perhaps too much, about what I saw play out between my own deceased mother and grandmother. It always takes me a couple of days to shake that film loose.

I watched the documentary, again, three days ago. Tonight I watched the film--is there a genre known as augmented documentary? The augmented documentary floored me. In particular, Barrymore's performance is stunning. She IS little Edie! I know the documentary very well, all the "classic" lines; and, Barrymore's delivery of them was like...well, watching little Edie in the documentary. Yet, seeing more of the Beales' past played out in rich detail connected so many dots for me (e.g. the very special gift given to Edith by Krug that figures prominently at the film's end.)

At the film's end, I was sorely missing my mother. She was the little Edie in my life; and, she would have loved this film. My grandmother, or big Edie, would have loved it, too. Thankfully, furniture covered with plastic and strict rules about animals in the house (never cats, and only the occasional small dog not allowed in bedrooms) kept the living arrangement tidy; but, the big Edie and little Edie dynamic was all there. So much laughter, so many tears, so much love and so much dislike. This film captured it all for me. Perhaps, to really appreciate it, one needs to have lived it to a certain degree. If one hasn't, I can see where the film might come across less than excellent.

9/10 stars from me and only because the film didn't incorporate "The Marble Faun" eating corn with big Edie; and, I missed little Edit remarking on her "revolutionary" dress for the day.

The psychological exploration of the Maysles' film of Grey Gardens was riveting, disturbing, entertaining, but ultimately confusing. Who in the world were these colorful-sad women, living in genuinely shocking conditions. Were they mentally ill--was it a put-on--there were so many missing pieces--that those of us who saw the film in the 70s have always remembered this strange sad tale--a sort of benign "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" kind of tale of lost souls--lost to the world, lost in their own memories and (to us) bizarre fantasy world.

The HBO film fills in many of the pieces--with heartbreaking detail. Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore are nothing short of astonishing in their reincarnation of this tragic mother and daughter duo. We see their elegance, their fragility, the tricks that life played on them--with vivid detail. The easy fluidity between the past and the present makes for a riveting drama that resonates almost as much as the original documentary. But there is a difference--in the documentary, there was much more humor--Big Edie and Little Edie were characters, and you felt sorry for them--yet you really noticed their resilience and delight at life. Yes they were caught up in the past with their obsessive dwelling on events from that distant golden age of their's--but they also seemed to relish their relationship, their day-to-day coping, their ice cream, their animals--it was really not THAT sad! The movie is much more heartbreaking--because we see the glamorous lives they led--and the contrast with the emptiness of their final denouement in Grey Gardens feels overwhelmingly sad. We suspected that especially Little Edie was mentally ill in the original--delusional--paranoid. In the film, there is no doubt. She was helpless from the beginning.

Pieces have been filled in--but there are still empty pieces that abound--the role Little Edie's brothers had or didn't have in their lives, how the wealthy relatives so completely ignored or were unaware of their living conditions--why the Edies so completely retreated from the "real world" when people with much more heartbreaking situations (and much less of a moneyed background) can not only cope but overcome---these are all still mysteries which will probably never be answered--can only be speculated upon--and which will allow "Grey Gardens"--both the documentary, and now the film--to retain an enduring mystique and fascination.

I was stunned by the uncanny accuracy of the scenes related to that original film; the set and prop reproductions, the re-enactment of scenes from the documentary, and the make-up and costuming of Barrymore and Lange is simply stunning.

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.

Taking the magnificent 1975 documentary and turning it into a dram is a big risk - and I really feel that it payed off.

What was really great was the back-story that you didn't get in the documentary. Ken Howard (Michael Clayton, "Crossing Jordan") played Big Edie's husband, Malcolm Gets ("Caroline in the City") played George "Gould" Strong, and Daniel Baldwin was Julius Krug, all important characters in the 1936 portion of the film.

Drew Barrymore was absolutely magnificent as "Little" Edie, and Jessica Lange was amazing as "Big" Edie. The passive-aggressive attitude displayed made for some super entertainment. The co-dependency made for some outstanding drama. They were an endearing couple.

Things were really in a disgusting state with cats and raccoons all over the place when Jackie Kennedy Onassis (Jeanne Tripplehorn) shows up after numerous stories made the papers outlining the fact that the women were broke.

They were so far gone that they couldn't see how badly they looked in the documentary made about them. Eddie still thought she was destined to be a star.

If Drew Barrymore doesn't get a Golden Globe for this, something is very wrong.