On Sunday night we attended the world premiere of Savage Grace in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. The film, starring Julianne Moore, is the disturbing true story of the murder of Barbara Baekeland. Barbara, married to the heir of the Bakelite plastic fortune, was a troubled woman who desperately wanted to shed her middle class upbringing and become fully immersed into the jet set world of the rich.
The performances by Moore and Eddie Redmayne, as Barbara’s son Tony, are flawless especially given the complex nature of the material. Many walked out during Sunday’s performance. During the Q & A the film’s director, Tom Kalin, explained this was not the first time the audience shrank during a screening. Many can not handle the treatment of the troubling relationship between Barbara and Tony.
The movie has not been picked up as of yet and has received mixed reviews. Jay Weissberg wrote the following in Variety,
“Scripter Howard A. Rodman’s treatment of an enthralling book is more a series of vignettes rather than a fully connected work, and helmer Tom Kalin seems unable to decide how much Sirkian melodrama to introduce into the heady mix. Gone are the reasons to be fascinated with these people, merely replaced with maddeningly over-arch dialogue and struggles with characterization. Biz may be modest but unsustainable.”
Monday night we ran into the film’s screenwriter, Howard A. Rodman, who was gracious and grateful that we attended the premiere. He told us the material was difficult for everyone involved but they all agreed it was a story worth telling.
Does this mean it is a story worth watching? We are undecided. It was uncomfortable and troubling but beautifully shot emotionally charged. It will be interesting to see if the film in distributed in the U.S. and how critics will receive it if it is.
