14 July, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I went to see this film, which is the true story of Barbara Daly Baekeland, who married the heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. The morally bankrupt American socialite’s big claim to fame was having an incestuous relationship with her homosexual son and then being murdered by him. I’m pretty sure the subtitle of this film is, “Be grateful your family isn’t this crazy.”

The film follows the family from the birth of their son until he is in his early twenties. Most of their time is spent in France, Spain and England, where they live a life of luxury and we get to see what a nutjob the mother is. Julianne Moore does a great job of playing the mother. Her husband is played by Stephen Dillane, who played Leonard Woolf in The Hours. Eddie Redmayne, who plays the adult version of the son, really creeped me out. Everything about him, from his looks to his voice, is just plain spooky. See him in action in this video review from the Guardian.

Even though this film is about a dysfunctional family par excellence and is filled with often shocking episodes, it’s very controlled and constrained and keeps the audience at arm’s length. I can understand this decision on the part of the filmmakers given the material they are working with, but I think they left out a lot of details. At one point the film jumps at least ten years or more, skipping most of the son’s adolescence. What happened during this time? I felt like I was missing something important, especially because the film is building up to the incestuous relationship between mother and son. I wanted to better understand how this sick family dynamic developed.

Ultimately, I was left wondering why anyone chose to make this film. To me, the story has no greater resonance outside the confines of the story. I wonder if it would have been made if the incest angle wasn’t there, which is what grabs the headlines. I don’t think it would have been made, so despite the quality of the film and the performances, the whole thing just seems voyeuristic and hollow with nothing of real substance to offer the viewer.

Link:

Guardian Review

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1. Greig Says:

   July 14th, 2008 at 6:51 pm

   The Romans didn’t like decadence, however, if it was to be entered into, they insisted on it being done properly. Voyeuristic and hollow works for TV & cable.

2. Lingual X Says:

   July 17th, 2008 at 1:49 am

   I skipped school one day to see this film (a badly needed psychological holiday). Boy did I pick the WRONG film. I agree with you. I’m not sure why this film was made. It certainly was a vehicle for yet another astonishing performance by Julianne Moore, but the story itself, although true, just seemed voyeuristic in a non-artistic way.

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