Saving Grace B. Jones

I thought this was a great movie, very sad story to say the least, seems that Grace was brought home to be ignored, not included. Tatum O'Neal,Michael Biehn,Penelope Ann Miller, the entire cast brought me back in time, to a lost era,I would have preferred to have grown up in the 1950's vs what we have now, simple, wholesome life, Similar to Loving Vincent, If your a little crazy or you have family members who are the same, we'll this is worth watching, honestly If your not a little crazy your missing out, lol

I am usually very forgiving of B-grade films. I don't mind a good old- fashioned syrupy love story now and then, or some half-baked horror tale about a woman in some remote location fighting to save her family's haunted B&B . . . but this film . . . wow, I really can't forgive this one. It is so grossly manipulative, with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, from the acting to the writing to the rainstorms of Biblical proportions. I didn't know if I was watching a Hallmark film, some silly Nickelodeon episode, or a cheap horror flick. The children are as cloying as marshmallow peeps (did no one work with these young actors, or did they just stuff them with cupcakes and candy and set them in front of the camera?). The adults--actors, director, and screen writer--didn't fare much better. I just felt bashed in the head at every turn--too much too much too much. (Towards the end of the film Penelope Miller has one of the most atrocious rain-soaked speeches I have ever seen.)

I did enjoy and appreciate Tatum O'Neal's performance. While I understand some of the harsh criticism regarding her portrayal of a severely emotionally disturbed woman, I found it to be heart breakingly realistic in the main. Of course she would drift around, half awake, half alive, twitchy and flaky and completely insecure. I actually felt sorry for this character. While I don't know how much of the story is entirely based on real events, surely placing Grace in her brother's home with his happy camper family, across the street from her former husband and his bubbly preggers wife, then given the glamorous job of sewing the baby's quilt and creating a mile-high lemon meringue pie of a ballgown for a 10 year old attending a military ball (a horrible and unnecessary story line, on several counts). . . I mean, if this is what her life has become, who wouldn't break out the sharp objects?

Growing up in Kansas I have known real families who suffered tragedy in similar ways. It is a step back in time. Three of the four kids tended to over act but otherwise the acting is very good and the story haunted me long after. Give it a chance. I think some reviewers missed the point. Connie was simply sharing a story based on her childhood experience. Ironically sent away to keep her safe in rural Missouri after a traumatic witnessing of a horrible act in the big Apple. There is tragedy everywhere. It's slow paced but it makes it seem real and I don't understand the reviews that say they weren't touched by the story. It's really about a family's suffering which no one ever deserves but is part of life.

This had the makings of a good movie, but was thoroughly spoilt by the bad directing and terrible acting. One or two could act reasonably well, the rest were awful and so was the music score.

I had the feeling that Connie Stevens, cast the parts to friends and family, and used her choice of music from the past. She also wrote the story line and directed....that says it all.

Tatum O'Neal was dreadful and her terrible acting destroyed the movie.

Such a shame because the storyline had the makings of a good movie

I think the first review (and only other one), was posted by one of the team from the movie.

I found this movie very disappointing. The most emotion it elicited was an occasional unhappy head shake at (character's) disregard and ignorance. The story based on an actual situation in the 50's having a brother's extraordinary compassion to get his sister out of an insane asylum, the inhumane treatment of mental illness/brain damage and heartbreaking events; this film should have been a real tearjerker. Not saying it was bad just remarkably ineffectual. I should have had tears streaming, sobbed even at one tragedy after another and instead my throat never closed or had even one slightly moistened eye moment. Nada (and I've choked up with Reach Out and Touch commercials.)