8/23/2009

Gray Gardens (2009)

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“It’s a fine line between past and present.”

Based on a documentary about the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.

Edith Bouvier Beale (Jessica Lange), former debutante and socialite, is not a terrible stable woman. When her husband Phelan (Ken Howard) has finally had enough, he moves their post-debutante daughter Edie (Drew Barrymore) to Manhattan and then he leaves Edith alone with her likely boyfriend, George (Malcolm Gets) in their East Hampton mansion.

Edie is in hopes of a life of an actress. Edith grows odder and odder, and tries to manipulate the young woman. It doesn’t take long for Edith to get Edie back to Long Island where the mansion is a mess. From then on, Edie is pretty much sucked into the depth of mental illness with her mother after her married boyfriend (Daniel Baldwin) breaks up with her.

By the 1970s, Edith and Edie are living in squalor in a decaying house filled with cats.

Others in the cast include Jeanne Tripplethorn as Jackie Kennedy; Joshua Peace and Ben Carlson as Edie’s brothers; Justin Louis and Arye Gross as the Maysles brothers who made the documentary.

Directed by Michael Sucsy. An HBO film for which Jessica Lange won an Emmy.

Run time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Not rated by MPAA.

My personal rating: B

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