My review of "Grey Gardens"

I am currently speechless.

This film was phenomenal. Lange and Barrymore both deserve all the awards they can pull in. I am so in love with both these ladies and would love to see Barrymore in the Best Actress category and Jessica Lange in the Best Supporting Actress category. The Beales would've had it no differently.

Lange during her early scenes as young Big Edie is extraordinary - singing, dancing, and having a "hoot" of a time. She shows NONE of her 60 years of age, retaining an innate beauty that is at once sparkling and mature. After seeing her in this, the skeptisism regarding her face and it looking like "a mask" is truly ridiculous. Whether or not she's had surgery, she glows as she should during Big Edie's youth and ages, as one critic put it, "credibly". In other words, she's appropriately "young" and "old". She's luminous and only gets better as the film unravels, shining brightly during the final, climactic moments of the film. Lange's performance is a tour-de-force - playful, ambiguous and forceful just as Big Edie was in real life. Her "Tea for Two" number is, as Little Edie would say, Divine.

Barrymore is no less phenomenal. What Barrymore can't achieve, Lange excels in, but the same can be said of Barrymore. There's a gravitas to her performance that's not necessarily "missing" from Lange's, but "intentionally absent". We get the sense that Little Edie was relegated to worrying about the small things because Big Edie was so manic and full of life.

The opposing chemistry between the two works quite well, allowing Barrymore to shine brilliantly in a role she seemed destined to play. She's explosive, yet never descends into camp. The same can be said of Lange, who fully displays her gift of mimicry and a fearless attempt at humor. They both succeed.

Then again, both ladies had wonderful *people* to draw from. Far from being characters, the Beales shined most when they were exposing their deepest fears and regrets and showing us our own. Lange and Barrymore emulate this brilliantly, and even when they falter, we forgive them because the Beales would've, just as we forgave them all of their flaws and unhygienic practices.

What's truly wonderous about this film is that it doesn't force you to choose between the two leads. As I stated, they both excel in what the other lacks. They elevate each other to higher and higher levels until you barely recognize either of them, and the point no longer is "who's better" or "who's fault is it", but rather, that they really loved each other.

The relationship between Lange and Barrymore is utterly believable and deeply moving. And this is what holds the film together. You sense that both women truly developed a love for each other both in and out of character and its a relationship that glows so brightly, it outshines any flaws the film or the performances in general might contain (Much like the Beales themselves outshined their own documentary).

It is the first film in quite some time that has brought me to tears.

NOTE: I love the soundtrack. I'm a corny Lange fan so I know I want it for sentimental reasons because although her voice wasn't extraordinary, it was sincerely sweet and surprisingly strong in some instances. The small musical numbers were wonderful. Barrymore in the end was fantastic as well, gawdy, playful and sexy, her lips curled to the side as if saying "dare me", she belts out her number with renewed confidence and joy. Many critics have called this a "false ending". I don't agree. I do believe this is exactly how Little Edie would've seen her life. And it's Divine.