Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Eddie Redmayne,
Elena Anaya, Barney Clark, Hugh Dancy, Jim Arnold
Written by Howard A Rodman, based on the book
by Natalie Robins & Steven M L Aronson
Certification UK 15 | US unrated
Runtime 97 minutes
Directed by Tom Kalin
Since the patchy but stylish Swoon in 1992, Tom Kalin's career has been a little, shall we say, off radar? There are echoes of that film — based on the Leopold and Loeb murder case that also inspired Hitchcock's Rope — in Savage Grace, another based-on-a-society-murder tale with dark sexual undertones.
This time round, the case is the 1972 murder of heiress Barbara Baekeland (Moore) by her son, Tony (Redmayne). Kalin's film charts their unusual relationship, through divorce from Brooks Baekeland (the always impressive Dillane) to their unusual, and mutual, sexual dalliances.
Moore is, of course, exceptional, flicking instantly, and convincingly, from cool and impenetrable to petulant and disturbed. Redmayne is also excellent and restrained, in what could so easily have developed into one of those eye-on-the-Oscar “I'm nuts, me” performances. So why doesn't it ever quite ignite? I have no idea. It brings to mind White Mischief, a similar tale of money and twisted passions that, while fascinating, was also just a little bit tedious.
Kalin's film is a cold, good looking affair, sort of Merchant Ivory meets Penthouse Forum (or possibly Far From Heaven meets Spanking The Monkey). That possibly makes it sound more interesting than it is, because, for all its gloss and fine acting, this feels as shallow as the society types it portrays. That may, of course, be a deliberate move on Kalin's part, in which case he's a cinematic genius. Or, alternatively, it could just be one of those films that doesn't quite gel. My guess would be the latter.