TRIPLE FEATURE MOVIE REVIEW: Grey Gardens (1976)/The Beales of Grey Gardens (2006)/Grey Gardens (2009)

Every family has crazy relatives, even Jackie Kennedy. In the early 1970s, her aunt and cousin; mother and daughter, Edith and Edie Bouvier-Beale came under fire from sanitation authorities and the tabloids for the decrepit state of their estate, Grey Gardens. After Kennedy saved them, via the almighty dollar from eviction, a pair of documentarians known as Albert and Charlie Maysles decided to film a documentary about the eccentric pair's reclusive lives. That documentary, Grey Gardens became a cult hit, and spawned a broadway musical, and a biographical telefilm.

Grey Gardens is particularly interesting, because it makes one wonder "How did two people go from having everything, to living in almost perpetual squalor?" through the camera lens, we are treated to a day in the life of "Big" and "Little" Edith Beale. Little Edie is a dynamic spinster who parades the house doing song and dance routines while showing off her bizarrely stylistic fashion choices and elaborating upon her family history. Her mother, an uber-liberal with a feisty wit, is a matriarch in every sense of the word. Still spry in spirit, Big Edie manages to enchant with her humor and tales of her family history. While the Beales living conditions are atrocious and appalling, their personalities exude through, and make the film fascinating as a non-fiction piece.

The Beales of Grey Gardens is a companion piece to the first film, made from unused footage from the first cut of Grey Gardens. The Beales is interesting for those who wanted to know more about the family, but it's very much a fan-service and suffers from a lack of cohesiveness in comparison to Grey Gardens. I much preferred the TV film Grey Gardens as a companion piece, because it chronocles the early lives of the Beales and is a very apt dramatization, supported by some wonderful performances by Drew Barrymore, Jessica Lange, and even a memorable cameo by Jeanne Tripplehorn as Jackie O, herself. While it doesn't exactly break the mold in biopic filmaking, it's very entertaining, especially if you aren't familiar with the original film itself. All in all, the story of the Beales is one of a kind, and the original documentary does a fascinating service of portraying their lives

Grey Gardens (1975) - 8/10

The Beales of Grey Gardens - 6/10

Grey Gardens (2009) - 7/10

Peace,
- Jon