Savage Grace

Director Tom Kalin

I was exhausted by the last screening of the day but it was definitely interesting enough to hold my attention. Savage Grace based on the book of the same title, follows the true story of the Baekeland family. As the director urged after the screening, I will try to not replace the entire movie with just the last 20 minutes.

The film begins with a glamorous young couple and their baby boy, Tony. The loving mother Barbara, played by Julianne Moore, is the complete opposite of the harsh father, Brooks. After the extreme wealth of the family is understood, the film jumps forward 10 years to the family living in Paris. Everything about their live is the epitome of elegance and the mother and young son make the cutest pair walking along the gardens of Paris. Then we skip forward seven years and Tony is a teenager vacationing with the family in Mallorca. Here we see the beautiful, sun-bleached boy Tony and his first possible romantic interests. These come in the form of Blanca, a young Spanish girl, and Jake, a young Spanish hash dealer. Tony takes Blanca on a trip with his own parents and his father “bores” her with a discussion of the family wealth.

In the next fast forward, Barbara sees Brooks and Blanca in the airport and runs after them raving. Apparently, Brooks has left Barbara for his son’s girlfriend Blanca. Barbara and Tony are left on their own and never get over this betrayal. Barbara brings in a stand in gay man to escort her to various functions and help her regain status in society. This ends in a three way sexual encounter between Barbara, her escort, and her son Tony.

In the final fast forward, Barbara and Tony are living in London. Tony still narrates his life in a letter to his father who has never had the decency to apologize to his son. Although Tony is an adult, he has never mentally moved past the point of childhood. The final seems are disturbing in everyway and include very straightforward acts of incest and murder.

It is hard to not be horrified by the ending of this film. The biggest question in my head and one that another audience member asked was “Why would you choose to make a film about this?” The oh-so-funny director, Tom Kalin, responded, “Well, its mostly autobiographical”. He then explained that tragedy in any form is a common human experience and these characters fell from the greatest height. I think this is a valid point and the film contains more than enough beauty and love in the first half to make the story of this family of interest to the audience.