I Could Have Left Any Time (Grey Gardens (DVD))

Member Name: JayHall1991

Product:	Grey Gardens (DVD)
Date:	15/05/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful, Moving, Everything

Disadvantages: Maybe A Little Upsetting

Grey Gardens is a dramatised version of the cult documentary made in the 1970s, which centred on a mother and daughter living in a decrepit and dangerous old house in the rich Hamptons. Their story was introduced into the public forum as it was discovered that they were relatives of Jackie Onasis, yet had allowed themselves to live in horrifying and unsanitary conditions. Here, the writers try to give an insight into how two high society woman's lives spiralled so out of control and how their upsetting, co-dependent relationship almost swallowed them whole.

Grey Gardens is a powerful and poignant portrait of two women whose lives have been changed by time, scarred by the pains of their past and haunted by the lives which they wished they had lived. It's a story about turning a heart-breaking past into a hopeful future and works both as a sumptuously produced acting showcase and a moving, elegant tale about the overlapping qualities of courage and madness. It manages to encapsulate two characters perfectly; accentuating their idiosyncrasies without ever taking away any of their life or humanity and it isn't afraid to pose dark and meaningful questions without spoon-feeding the audience all the answers. In less respectful and skilled hands Grey Garden's could have been a cheap exercise in exploiting two iconic outcasts; but here the cast and crew have created an emotionally satisfying and ultimately hopeful movie that manages to entertain and move the audience whilst cementing the Beales as some of the entertainment industries most compelling oddities.

Grey Garden's soars so highly because it centres around two indisputably fascinating characters. The two Eddie's are bizarre studies in contradictions; their symbiotic relationship both suffocates them and keeps them alive, they reach for the stars and yet are bound to the dirt and they exemplify courage whilst running away from the realities of life. They are both wonderful and distasteful, and as they move around in the squalor of their home they seem to glow with pride and wisdom whilst emanating a hidden shame and regret for the way their lives have turned out. They mean so much, and are so complicated, that trying to shape them into a 'character' in some way would have resulted in a movie disaster - these woman are too full of life to be hammered into the constraints of what it means to be a role in a movie - and so Michael Sucsy (who both wrote and directed the piece) allows them to live and breath. His biggest success is in making these two women, whose journey's are of both epic and tiny proportions, the fore of his story, above style or narrative. His screenplay both idolises and humanizes the Beal's and the movie shines likes the stars because of it.

Grey Garden's adopts a highly bizarre structure; it is three pronged, telling the story of little Edie's early adulthood, the making of the documentary and then, to a point, Little Edie's later life. This can be confusing and isn't handled as elegantly as other aspects of the production - but successfully manages to instil the true tragedy of the story. By showing the two Edie's as idealists, dreamers, free thinkers and fierce lovers of life, their descent into filth becomes all the more shocking and heart-aching. These woman, had they broken the vicious cycle of co-dependency and abuse, could have flown like kites. Sucsy directs the woman's earlier lives with a huge amount of aesthetic style and emotional intelligence; bringing the era to life excellently and moving the story on with a huge amount of pathos and pain. The scenes set in the 1930's are by far the most extravagant and entertaining; Little Edie's struggle to make it in New York is highly watchable, if a little ordinary, and Big Edie's existence as a rich lush is handled with a surprising amount of skill. The sets are beautifully rendered and the era vividly re-created with beautiful costume, make-up and camera work. By giving an account of their earlier live, however elaborated or fictitious it may be, the audience is able to engage more fully in their story.
The screenplay is restrained and intelligent, with dialogue that has a pleasingly lyrical quality and a smoothness which is extremely rare in a made-for-television-movie. It is jammed packed with astute and elegant characterisation and is brimming with creativity, compassion and, eventually, joy.

The writing is original and witty and there is a huge amount of emotion piled into the proceedings; the character's trials and tribulations are injected with a lot of resonance and pain. It is extremely tightly plotted which makes the films pacing almost pitch-perfect and offers more than a few surprises and twists. It takes the story into some extremely dark and, at times, harrowing places but never loses its lightness of touch or gracefulness. It perfectly includes moments of comedy into the drama with some genuinely funny moments and it hurtles towards a rebel rousing final chapter that garners a huge amount of good-will from the audience and the script poses the very real question; how can two people be too self centred to enter into a meaningful relationship, yet too dependant to live alone?

The film is greatly aided by two astonishing performances from Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, who both put their hearts and souls into their roles. They are absolute powerhouses; bringing pain and passion to the Edie's, treating them with respect as well as realism and condensing the maelstrom of emotions ripping through their house without diluting it or trying to offer easy explanations. They're both heart-breaking and hilarious, rubbed raw and subtle - each frenzied by ghosts but trying to heal. After viewing the film I hired the original documentary and both actresses are absolutely dead on; especially Barrymore, who speaks, walks and looks exactly the same as Little Edie. And she, in particular, brings an earth shattering, heart-wrenching quality to Edie - she glows with the energy of the woman, yet appears physically frail and wounded, her eyes tell a whole story of lost dreams and wasted love that we never get to see. One scene, which sees Little Edie go through an extremely harrowing and de-humanising ordeal, brings Barrymore's true talent to the fore, she seems to be feverish and burning with shame and grief; the world, as well as her mother, has deemed her unworthy, her fate is sealed, and she just seems crushed. However, she manages to radiate joy as her character gets some semblance of a happy ending; she just shines as her character learns to forgive and to let go of the constraints that other have put upon her.

Overall, Grey gardens is one of the most powerful, proud, majestic films I have seen in years; it is rubbed raw by pain and circumstance, gleaming with hope for the future and oddly, hauntingly beautiful. Like a patchwork it is made up of hundreds of moments, quiet pains and loud triumphs, secret liaisons and public wounds and through the skill and talent of its creators it tells the genuinely moving story of a mother and daughter. He world may not have understood them - but here the cast and crew obviously do.

Summary: A brilliant piece of film-making