My first impression of “Grey Gardens” was that, while it was an intriguing story, the material was perhaps not substantive enough for a complete movie. It was only later that I learned that it was actually originally an HBO special, so that made everything make more sense. It was a little surreal to basically watch a movie about a documentary about a real-life family, but getting past that, I found this work was really well-done. Of course, it helps that I find Drew Barrymore utterly charming and enchanting.
Barrymore plays Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale, and we follow her progression from debutante to broken old maid, ushered by her mother, Edith “Big Edie” Ewing Bouvier, played by a frighteningly old-looking Jessica Lange. After divorcing her husband, the overbearing Big Edie becomes a recluse, moving from Park Avenue to the East Hampton, Long Island, estate of Grey Gardens. Big Edie essentially tricks her daughter into coming to live with her, then saps her daughter’s confidence at every turn, fearful of allowing Little Edie to find the strength to leave her alone.
The aunt and first cousin, respectively, of Jacqueline Bouvier, Big Edie and Little Edie wind up living at Grey Gardens for half a century. In their heartbrokenness and growing fear of the outside world, the pair succumbs to extreme poverty, apathy and isolation, slowly allowing the estate to slip into extreme disrepair, disarray and squalor. The once-beautiful house is infested with stray animals and devolves into a complete dump, becoming a health hazard that the neighbors eventually alert the local authorities to, setting the scene for a raid that results in a truly heart-rending and emotional scene. Just as the city is prepared to evict them and condemn the house, Jackie comes to the rescue, paying to have the house cleaned and repaired.
Along the way, it seems we’re challenged to decide for ourselves whether Big Edie and Little Edie are eccentric, crazy or both. For example, Little Edie’s flair for exotic turbans is only partially attributed to her alopecia condition, which made all of her fall out. But the documentary, by the brother team of Albert and David Maysles, uses a direct cinema technique to show a highly dysfunctional relationship between mother and daughter. Their days at Grey Gardens centered around song and dance, harsh arguments, quick reconciliations and psychological warfare. After a burglary during a party in the house, the Edies slipped further into isolation, increasingly afraid to lose their possessions -- which had become their lives -- and increasingly distrustful of the world at large.
Directed by Michael Sucsy, “Grey Gardens” was nominated for 17 Primetime Emmys, winning six, along with a pair of Golden Globe Awards. Barrymore is nothing short of captivating as Little Edie, while Lange seems to truly capture the essence of loss and resignation that surrounds Big Edie. All in all, this can be a difficult and confusing movie to follow at times, but the payoff is worth it … as long as you value the story and don’t work too hard to try to find some deeper meaning in it all.
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