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Created Aug 29, 2009 02:18PM PST • Edited Mar 06, 2015 10:02AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Grey Gardens is a fascinating biography of Jackie Kennedy’s aunt and cousin as they descend from high society to seedy eccentricity. The movie’s hardly worth seeking out, but eminently watchable for those interested in the lifestyles of the rich and famous, the Hamptons, or all things Kennedy.

   ‘Big’ Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter ‘Little’ Edith used wealth and highborn station to indulge their showbiz desires until the allowances and Tiffany heirlooms-for-sale ran out, at which time they became recluses in Grey Gardens, their East Hampton mansion. Redolent of faded glamour and high society intrigue, a story like this creates natural fascination. The fact that Big Edie would sometimes look after her brother Black Jack Bouvier’s daughters when they were little girls, and that one of those daughters would grow up to be JFK’s wife, makes this an American soap opera of the first order.

   Having enjoyed this biography, what seems worth seeking out is the 1975 documentary also titled ‘Grey Gardens’ that this movie depicts being filmed.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore easily bring Big and Little Edie to life. A classic beauty who’s long since proven herself a great actor, Lange is a natural as the glamorous yet eccentric Big Edie. Barrymore also has more than a little idiosyncrasy to her, so the Little Edie role nicely fits her persona as well.

   The supporting players don’t really distinguish themselves, though Ken Howard is a natural as Big Edie’s white shoe lawyer husband, and Jeanne Tripplehorn gracefully plays Little Edie’s first cousin Jackie O. Daniel Baldwin also deserves notice as the former Cabinet Secretary who has a fling with Barrymore’s Little Edie.

5. Male Stars Good 3.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Tolstoy’s famous opening of Anna Karenina suggests the master novelist’s recipe for great drama – unhappy families in all their variety. Thus the Beale’s manifold familial dysfunctions: the controlling Mother, willful daughter, distant Father, famous relatives. The movie simply has to recount them. This it does, not especially artfully, but with source material this rich, additional art would simply add to the decadence.

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Good 3.0

    Some of Big and Little Edie’s wacky sayings are apparently taken from the documentary about them.

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    Nicely done for a small screen movie. The production values are especially strong, notably the glamorous recreation of the Hamptions and NYC in the 30s and 40s.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.3

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Polite 1.4

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

    The Bouviers were a colorful lot. Big Edie’s indulgences and eccentricities are shown in this movie, while her brother Black Jack Bouvier’s are alluded to. That First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis emerged un-scarred from this mess of a family is to her eternal credit.

    The real Little Edie was a legitimately comely swimsuit model, as this Life magazine photo shows.

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0