Grey Gardens

2009 "True Glamour Never Fades."
7.4| 1h44m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 21 June 2009 Released
Producted By: etc.films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Based on the life stories of the eccentric aunt and first cousin of Jackie Onassis raised as Park Avenue débutantes but who withdrew from New York society, taking shelter at their Long Island summer home, "Grey Gardens." As their wealth and contact with the outside world dwindled, so did their grasp on reality.

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Reviews

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Neddy Merrill 1975's documentary about the Jacqueline Onassis' crazy Aunt "Big" Edie and loony cousin "Little" Edie is as much a meditation on the sheer power of celebrity as actual entertainment. Effectively the movie is an episode of something you would see on A&E television (didn't that stand for "Arts & Entertainment" at one time, why is wall-to-wall drug addicts, hoarders, obsessive-compulsives and other group therapy frequenters?) However, unlike A&E there is no narration just Big Edie and Little Edie talking gibberish mostly over each other and thus there is no context except the link to the Bouvier family and their link to power (John F. Kennedy -- greatest philanderer ever) and money (Aristotle Onassis greatest negotiator ever -- supposedly his prenup with Jackie promised him 3 conjugal visits per week (I'm just bitter because mine only guarantees me 3 in total over the life of the marriage)). Anyway, for the extended run-time of the film Big Edie rolls around, often unclothed, in a bed covered with the detritus of lunacy while Little Edie runs around feeding all of the many cats (most movie stereotypes are false except perhaps that very nutty people often have a lot of cats) and the occasional raccoon. Suffice to say if Big E and Little E were unconnected to the vaunted "America's royalty" they would be the women you don't notice downtown on the park bench who couldn't get spare change off of much less the attention of the directing team of Maysels, Hovde and, yes, "Muffie" Meyer. In short, turn off the DVD and turn on A&E ("Addled" & "Eccentric"?)
DietCoke13 How can anyone watching this not feel anything but compassion and pity for these two women? Neither are mean or evil.....they just refuse to accept reality. The acting performances of Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore are extraordinary. These two women descend into a world where (among other delusions) they don't even understand that their house is completely unfit to live in, and that it is perfectly acceptable to have raccoons and cats living in your house. It's a great study of what co-dependency is all about. You really can't even get upset with the two sons...how can you reason with a woman who will not listen to simple common sense? One of the best parts is that it is based on a real story. Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore are outstanding. This film is definitely worth watching.
Syl Big Edie was right. Nobody has made a film documentary about this mother-daughter eccentric before. Their lives have inspired not only a documentary but a musical stage production on Broadway. Both mother and daughter Beales will live in immortality whether on stage somewhere or being seen in a documentary or this film. Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore are perfect in playing Big Edie and Little Edie. Drew stunned me in her performance as the flamboyant outspoken artistic and maybe misunderstood Little Edie who has big dreams. They live in a dilapidating mansion called Grey Gardens in East Hampton, Long Island, New York which Big Edie calls home and has for over 30 years. She refuses to leave her estate and downsize. Jeanne Tripplehorn's performance of Jackie Onassis is quite downplayed but sensitive. When she says to Edie, I wished it was you to marry a Kennedy. You feel the pain and anguish in her voice. Jackie helps her aunt and cousin in cleaning up the estate once she learns that they could be evicted and homeless. Ken Howard is fine as the husband and father. There is a need to understand them more and to why they remained isolated with their pet raccoons and cats. But Big Edie's right, nobody has made a film about them in 1975 and they have been the subject of discussion. I marveled at how Drew became Little Edie. Big Edie loved to sing at her parties during the summer season in the Hamptons. Their legendary lives will never be forgotten and this film is a tribute to their legacy.
moonspinner55 Playing the squalor-ridden, self-deluded Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale, Drew Barrymore is a revelation. In this dramatization of events surrounding the filming of the 1975 cult documentary "Grey Gardens", Jessica Lange's Edith, Sr. and Barrymore's Edie have a marvelous rapport as high society mother and daughter who fall on financial hard times. Cousins of Jacqueline Kennedy, the Beales--tucked away for years in a seaside house in East Hampton, New York--were a portrait-perfect example of missed opportunities, squandered dreams, and a freaky sort of lazy optimism that bordered on ridiculousness. They let their water and power lapse, their animal-infested home rot away, until cousin Jacqueline came to their rescue in 1971 and helped to fix the place up (and save the twosome from eviction). Lange withers away in frighteningly real fashion, while flirtatious Barrymore carries on as if every day is New Year's Eve. Both performances are spot on, though this is certainly Drew's shining moment as a serious actress; nailing the cadence of Edie's voice, her slouch and boxy walk, not to mention her high-on-life spirit, Barrymore is very funny and touching. The film goes back in time to give us a peek at how the Beale women managed to get to such a low point in life, and while the narrative is condensed and at times restricting, the pacing of the cable-made film seldom lags (as the original documentary did). It's a thoughtful movie about dreams so easily dashed, and the unforgiving price we pay for living in the past.