Big Edie was right. Nobody has made a film documentary about this mother-daughter eccentric before. Their lives have inspired not only a documentary but a musical stage production on Broadway. Both mother and daughter Beales will live in immortality whether on stage somewhere or being seen in a documentary or this film. Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore are perfect in playing Big Edie and Little Edie. Drew stunned me in her performance as the flamboyant outspoken artistic and maybe misunderstood Little Edie who has big dreams. They live in a dilapidating mansion called Grey Gardens in East Hampton, Long Island, New York which Big Edie calls home and has for over 30 years. She refuses to leave her estate and downsize. Jeanne Tripplehorn's performance of Jackie Onassis is quite downplayed but sensitive. When she says to Edie, I wished it was you to marry a Kennedy. You feel the pain and anguish in her voice. Jackie helps her aunt and cousin in cleaning up the estate once she learns that they could be evicted and homeless. Ken Howard is fine as the husband and father. There is a need to understand them more and to why they remained isolated with their pet raccoons and cats. But Big Edie's right, nobody has made a film about them in 1975 and they have been the subject of discussion. I marveled at how Drew became Little Edie. Big Edie loved to sing at her parties during the summer season in the Hamptons. Their legendary lives will never be forgotten and this film is a tribute to their legacy.
Review of Grey Gardens
