Grey Gardens

Mansion the star of ‘Grey Gardens’
BOB LEBZELTER / VIDEO VIPER for May 8, 2009

HBO

DREW BARRYMORE (left) and Jessica Lange in "Grey Gardens."



There has been a lot of hype about the HBO film “Grey Gardens.”
The film debuted on the pay channel a few weeks ago and will soon make it to DVD. There was no theatrical release.
It has been reported actress Drew Barrymore withdrew from the world for a few months, to better discover the mindset of her character, Little Edith Bouvier Beale.
Jessica Lange plays her mother, Big Edith.
The story is about the two women, switching back and forth between the 1930 through the 50s and the 1970s.
Big Edith just happens to be Jackie Kennedy Onassis' aunt and Little Edith's cousin. You see young Jackie at their fashionable Long Island summer home in the 1930s.
Big Edith enjoys the social life, hosting parties in the 1930s, singing, dancing for her guests, with her accompanist, a much-younger music instructor, played by Malcomb Gets. Big Edith has the hots for this musician, who is employed as Little Edith's music teacher.
The affection isn't returned and we see early that Big Edith has become somewhat of a caricature.
Barrymore's Little Edith senses this and decides to go to New York with her father, played by Ken Howard, to find fame and fortune as a singer and dancer.
Um, it doesn't happen. Instead she spends her time as a mistress to Truman cabinet member Julius Krug, played by Daniel Baldwin.
When that disintegrates, she returns home to her increasingly reclusive mother.
Eventually, they are placed on a $150 per month budget.
While the hype has been on Drew and how this challenging film Is supposed to prove she is indeed worthy of the Barrymore name, Lange might be even more exceptional, creating a character under all of those miles of wrinkly makeup to play Big Edith later in life.
But to tell you the truth, the biggest, most unforgettable character for me, is the house. As it deteriorates, it is like the woods retakes it. There are gaps in the roof, no electricity or running water, it is overrun by cats and raccoons take up residency.
At one point we see tree branches growing through broken windows into Big Edith's room.
By then, the two are so out of it, they don't notice the total mess that was once their house. They don't wretch from the smell, the way others do. They comment about the interior design to visitors, not noticing piles of old cans or a cat urinating on a family painting.
Into this mess comes documentary directors Albert and David Maysles, played by Arye Gross and Justin Lewis, best known for the Rolling Stones film “Gimme Shelter” about the murder of a fan at a concert by Hells Angles in 1969.
Their documentary, the original "Grey Gardens," made celebrities of the Beales.
The original documentary is on my Netflix list. Unfortunately, there's a long wait.
"Grey Gardens" is a topnotch film with exceptional acting and oh, that house.

GREY GARDENS
• Directed by Michael Sucsy
• Written by Sucsy and Patricia Rozema
• Runtime: 104 minutes
• Not rated, but might be disturbing to young children, some sexuality