Grey Gardens

When watching Grey Gardens, I was drawn in from the first minute of the movie. Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange were unbelievable and their acting is in true fine form. I've always thought Jessica Lange was a phenomenal actress and her performance in this movie is the finest work she has done in years.

Though I've always liked Drew Barrymore, I've never considered her a "serious" actress. Until now. This is the best acting she has ever done. She ought to receive a golden globe and Emmy for her performance in this movie.

I was so intrigued by watching Grey Gardens, I watched the original documentary on YouTube right after, and then watched the movie all over again. It's uncanny how dead on their portrayals are of Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale.

Watch this movie!

Not sure why it took me so long to view this film (I rarely watch made-for-cable-television films, so that explains that.) I've seen the documentary a number of times and always came away from it wishing I would have had the opportunity to meet the Edies and, particularly, little Edie. I can't explain it, but there's just something so marvelously endearing about her. She should have been a "somebody" other than just being Jackie O.'s cousin.

Watching the 1975 Maysles record of the closing days of Grey Gardens always sets me to thinking, perhaps too much, about what I saw play out between my own deceased mother and grandmother. It always takes me a couple of days to shake that film loose.

I watched the documentary, again, three days ago. Tonight I watched the film--is there a genre known as augmented documentary? The augmented documentary floored me. In particular, Barrymore's performance is stunning. She IS little Edie! I know the documentary very well, all the "classic" lines; and, Barrymore's delivery of them was like...well, watching little Edie in the documentary. Yet, seeing more of the Beales' past played out in rich detail connected so many dots for me (e.g. the very special gift given to Edith by Krug that figures prominently at the film's end.)

At the film's end, I was sorely missing my mother. She was the little Edie in my life; and, she would have loved this film. My grandmother, or big Edie, would have loved it, too. Thankfully, furniture covered with plastic and strict rules about animals in the house (never cats, and only the occasional small dog not allowed in bedrooms) kept the living arrangement tidy; but, the big Edie and little Edie dynamic was all there. So much laughter, so many tears, so much love and so much dislike. This film captured it all for me. Perhaps, to really appreciate it, one needs to have lived it to a certain degree. If one hasn't, I can see where the film might come across less than excellent.

9/10 stars from me and only because the film didn't incorporate "The Marble Faun" eating corn with big Edie; and, I missed little Edit remarking on her "revolutionary" dress for the day.

Well, you can't go wrong using Big and Little Edie as subject matter, be it in a documentary, a movie, or a musical. This beautifully photographed and opulent "Grey Gardens," starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore as Big and Little Edie, again demonstrates what compelling people they were.

Not having seen any documentary yet, or the musical, which had some powerful emotions expressed in the music ("Another Winter in a Summer Town" as an example), I can only go by this particular "Grey Gardens." The story of the Beales is sad, harrowing, frustrating, and sometimes funny.

Both women are magnificent in their roles, particularly Lange, though my understanding is that the real Big Edie was a much better singer than shown here. Barrymore makes a stunning young Edie, living in New York and trying to make it as an actress and captures the mature woman - it's quite a stretch, too.

What's missing here is exactly what happened to these two beautiful and wealthy women, and I'm not sure it's covered in any other material about them. Why didn't Big Edie remarry? Why didn't Edie "The Body Beautiful" Beale get a rich husband? Why did the other children allow them to live the way they did? Was Little Edie untalented, or could she have had success as an actress? Were they always mentally unstable or eccentric or make each other that way?

I don't know after watching "Grey Gardens," though I'm sure Lange and Barrymore made some decisions about those things in order to play their roles.

The nice thing about "Grey Gardens," for me, anyway, is that Little Edie finally got what she wanted in life - fame (well, notoriety), the ability to perform, money, and a warm place to live. I'm happy about that for her. I just wish I knew more about the psychology that led up to all of it.

I was stunned by the uncanny accuracy of the scenes related to that original film; the set and prop reproductions, the re-enactment of scenes from the documentary, and the make-up and costuming of Barrymore and Lange is simply stunning.

I have to say that I was as dubious about this project as anyone Else...

Some one was remaking a documentary as a drama ?!? when the documentary may be the most perfect movie I have ever seen ?!? But in all seriousness this movie takes the subject firmly in hand and KNOCKS IT OUT OF THE PARK !!! ITS Brilliant !!! First off you can tell it was written by a true lover of the original, secondly Drew and Jessica are almost indistinguishable from there real counterparts.

I cant say more with out giving stuff away but this my be the best thing I have seen in years !

As Lil Edie would say ...."Its Absolutely Terrific"