Savage Grace

Tom Kalin’s long-awaited new feature is based on the award-winning book of the same title, and like his earlier (and highly influential) Swoon, draws its material from a real life crime story tinged with sexual undertones.

Beginning in 1946 and spanning almost 30 years, it tells the incredible story of Barbara Daly, an aspiring socialite who marries above her class to Brooks Baekeland, heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. Theirs is an unsteady match, and friction between the couple is compounded by the birth of their son, Tony, who develops an unnaturally close relationship with his mother.

The family’s pursuit of the good life brings them from New York to Europe, and we see their rise and fall in glamorous locations in Paris, Cadaques, Mallorca and London. Sexually confused, mocked by his father and near suffocated by his mother’s neediness, Tony’s mental health begins to deteriorate, and the family dynamics take a violent turn. Kalin’s evocation of the purposeless, decadent lifestyles of rich expat Americans is brilliantly polished, as is Julianne Moore’s performance as the woman whose relentless ambition and deep seated insecurities lead to tragedy.

Sandra Hebron, London Film Festival Programme