Grey Gardens - Now on DVD

As much as I was particularly excited and interested to see this one, since I refuse to pay the ridiculous cost of full cable, I unfortunately had to wait until the HBO movie Grey Gardens came out on DVD.    If you're not familiar with the cult classic 1971 documentary also titled Grey Gardens, you should be.  It captures the fascinating lives of Big and Little Edie, aunt and cousin of Jackie O and former New York socialites as they live in destitution.

If you thought the folks on the A&E show Horders were bad, you obviously haven't met Big and Little Edie.  The two of them are so hard to describe - in fact, if you didn't know any better you'd swear you were watching a SNL skit, I mean back when SNL was funny and people watched it.

A compelling documentary, it leaves you with the huge question of how these two women who had it all came to the point of eating out of cat food cans and living in a dilapidated, flea infested hell hole.  This 2009 HBO movie answers that question with great heart and compassion.

What really sets this film apart is the absolutely superb acting.  In her best performance since E.T., Drew Barrymore was almost unrecognizable as a legitimate actress.  In the special feature documentary, Barrymore says she worked harder to prepare for this role as Little Edie than any other she's ever done - and it sure has paid off.  The talented Jessica Lange is also unstoppable in her A+ performance, capturing Big Edie to an absolute T.  If you've seen the original documentary, you can hardly tell the difference between who is the real person and who's the character.  Big and Little Edie are very complex characters with many prominent idiosyncrasies so I was blown away at Barrymore and Lange's ability to tap into them flawlessly.

The set designers did a remarkably impressive job not only recreating the original Grey Gardens, but also giving it a real spirit as the character's third main character.  And if Grey Gardens was a real person, I'd say she's a nice blend of Lindsay Lohan and Nick Nolte.

Sadly, Alec Baldwin must've been busy filming It's Complicated, because HBO could only get Daniel Baldwin for this one.  But to my surprise even Daniel brought his A game.  Alec must've started hosting private Baldwin brother acting lessons...not so fast Stephen.

This movie has more heart to it than any movie I've seen in a long time, perhaps because the characters are based off real people.  You can't help but get drawn in by the heart wrenching, self-inflicted pain these two women created and then suffered through.  I must recommend you watch the original documentary before watching this movie.  It's not that you won't understand the movie, but you'll enjoy this movie so much more if you at least have a sliver of understanding of these women.

From what I can tell from the research I've done, the movie is quite close to factually accurate, which I was really happy to learn.  The fantastic costuming and music support this movie, but it's really the acting that makes it truly great.  Once again HBO has produced a knock out hit that rivals anything on the big screen and infinitely deserving of its two Golden Globes for Best TV Movie and Best TV Movie Actress, Drew Barrymore.

So, Mother dahling, please don't pass Grey Gardens over as it's earning my first ever PAY FULL PRICE! 

Check out a behind the scenes look at the making of Grey Gardens!