Savage Grace: Mommie dearest

The icy but lurid drama Savage Grace gives Julianne Moore the plum role of Barbara Daly Baekeland, the erratic, socially conscious wife of Brooks Baekeland (Stephen Dillane), heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. In 1972, the Baekelands and their son, Tony (Eddie Redmayne), were embroiled in a notorious crime and ensuing scandal.

I won’t give away the nature of the offense here, but it may be better to go into Savage Grace prespoiled. Director Tom Kalin sets such an uncertain tone through most of the film’s scenes, building to a seemingly unmotivated climax, that it’s probably a more satisfying movie if you already know the ending. Moore’s elegantly furious performance elevates the movie, but Savage Grace’s narrative weaknesses need all the help they can get.

Tony’s awkward, self-absorbed narration explains, “I was the storm when hot meets cold,” at the film’s introduction. He’s a baby in 1946, when Barbara would rather spend evenings at the Stork Club and other swanky Manhattan nightspots than change diapers. Barbara’s high-maintenance social climbing seems a bad match to Brooks’ frosty hauteur.

The film hop-scotches ahead in time, lighting on Paris in 1959 and Mediterranean beaches in the ’60s, as Barbara cultivates Tony as an ally against her increasingly distant husband. She obsesses over nuances of etiquette but can also trot out her son to read from the Marquis de Sade to party guests in a misguided display of sophistication. Barbara’s parenting style might be explicable only as an investment in Tony’s need for psychotherapy as an adult. We can understand why Tony becomes so petulant and self-absorbed, but Redmayne never raises the character above his most petty traits.

The parents split when Brooks takes up with his son’s gold-digging girlfriend, but that doesn’t upset Tony too much, since he’s actually gay. His coming-out doesn’t end the family’s fraught sexual dynamics, which include mother and son both bedding the same family friend. With its loose-cannon mother and taboo-breaking sexuality, Savage Grace could be nicknamed Spanking the Monkey After Running with Scissors. The sexually frank scenes prove the most compelling moments of the movie not just for the subject matter, but because the filmmakers don’t show the same command of subtler family and social tensions that you might find in Edward Albee plays.

Moore’s performance as Barbara hardly qualifies as a model of restraint. In an airport confrontation she unleashes a profane tirade that would be fodder for drag-queen imitations were Moore a lesser actress. Even when playing an oversized personality such as Barbara Daly Baekeland, Moore keeps her focus, coming across as not just a jet-set harpy but also a woman plagued with insecurities about her class and sexuality, willing to lash out at the closest people within reach. A family advisor describes Barbara as “one of those from whom others take their cue,” and it’s unfortunate that Saving Grace never rises to the level of its leading lady.