Savage Grace
Savage Grace
DIR: Tom Kalin• WRI: Howard A. Rodman • PROD: Katie Roumel, Christine Vachon, Xavier Granada, Pamela Koffler, Iker Monfort, Alberto Aranda • DOP: Juan Miguel Azpiroz • ED: John F. Lyons • DES: Víctor Molero • CAST: Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Eddie Redmayne, Elena Anaya, Unax Ugalde
You are watching Julianne Moore in a 1950s-set film about a woman dealing with the revelation that a family member is a homosexual. It is directed by one of the major voices of the ‘new queer cinema’ movement of the early ’90s. It is beautifully shot, well acted and terrific entertainment. The year is 2002, and you are watching Todd Hayne’s Far from Heaven.
Savage Grace, on the other hand, is not entertaining. At all. Tom Kalin’s film, however, likes it that way; it’s clear that at no point you are meant to like these characters, nor approve of any of their actions. They are shallow, selfish, Machiavellian and lazy; rich socialites with time to burn. This, on paper, is not necessarily a bad thing; after all, Daniel Day Lewis didn’t win an Oscar® last year for playing nice, and Charles Foster Kane was hardly man of the year. Countless great films have dealt with characters the audience finds difficult to like. The point at which they don’t care, however, is another situation entirely.
The subject matter of Savage Grace is fascinating, albeit somewhat grim. Moore plays Barbara Daly, a socialite who married Brooks Baekeland, heir to the Bakelite millions. The film explores the relationship between her and her son Tony, who, much to Barbara’s dismay, turns out to be gay. The film charts events from his birth over the course of twenty years as the family tears itself apart and drives Tony to unspeakable actions. It’s difficult stuff, but Kalin, returning to filmmaking for the first time since his 1992 debut Swoon, seems a fine candidate to handle it. Sadly, on the basis of Savage Grace, it would appear that he has forgotten how to make a film over the past few years. The screenplay is poorly constructed and laden with horrible dialogue, while Kalin’s direction feels hopelessly amateurish. Pacing is non-existent; the film jumps across time periods and continents in a narrative that lacks energy or structure. Worse still, the film seems unable to make up its mind as to who and what it’s about. Moore seems convinced that she is centre stage, and performs with all the appropriate panache, but Kalin seems more interested in Anthony, played by Eddie Redmayne with a woodeness that suggests in a parallel universe somewhere, he’d be playing Prince Caspian instead.
Technically, the film is a mess; Kalin doesn’t manage a single interesting shot, despite some beautiful locations. The soundtrack, meanwhile, seems to have migrated from another film; flipping between melodramatic strings and light jazz with seemingly no regard for what’s happening on screen. It all contributes to a work that tests your patience rather than challenging your brain. When a major character attempts suicide, it’s hard to stifle a yawn, and when the potentially chilling finale arrives, it’s so mishandled that you’ll simply be checking your watch again (a word of warning, however; it is shocking, although this is largely down to the content rather than the execution).
Just as the drama of the story is lost among technical incompetence and poor storytelling, quite what the film is trying to say evaporates entirely. Ultimately, the only meaning one manages to extract from Savage Grace is that human beings can really, really be miserable creatures. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you’ll have the most fun in the cinema since Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. If, however, you would rather avoid indulgent tripe that gives art-house cinema a bad name, then just rent Far from Heaven.
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Category: Reviews
