Savage Grace

"Savage Grace" is an irritating melodrama of familial dysfunction based on the true story of an incestuous relationship that developed between Bakelite plastics heir Barbara Daly (Julianne Moore) and her pampered gay son Tony (Eddie Redmayne). Dark humor, along the lines of "The Honeymoon Killers," gives way to fractured set pieces that gesture toward the film’s gratuitous climax, one that’s destined to bestow upon it a cult status. Stephen Dillane makes the most of his underwritten role as Barbara’s wealthy and adulterous husband Brooks Baekeland, but it’s Julianne Moore who gets chewed up and spit out of screenwriter Howard A. Rodman’s dissonant adaptation of the book by Natalie Robins and Steven M. L. Aronson. Intrusive voice-over narration by Tony about his "adventuress mother" pushes against a narrative filled with antagonists. There’s never enough oxygen for the film, or its audience, to breathe.

Not Rated, 97 mins. (C-) (Two Stars)