Grey Gardens
Premiered on HBO on April 18, 2009
Starring Jessica Lange (as 'Big' Edie Bouvier Beale), Drew Barrymore
Directed by Michael Sucsy
See complete credits at Internet Movie Database
"All told, it's an impeccably rendered piece, down to the smallest details -- the kind of lush, meticulous little parcel that relatively few outlets these days have the means or latitude to cultivate." (Variety)
"All it takes is one shot of Ms. Lange, lying in bed wearing L.B.J.-vintage eyeglasses, her hair white and scraggly and her face and neck wreathed in wrinkles, to know that Big Edie is well and unflinchingly represented." (New York Times)
"Barrymore has the showier role and gives the more riveting performance, but that takes nothing away from Lange, who captures the smothering selfishness that was the flip side of Big Edie's determination to live life on her own terms." (USA Today)
"Lange is flat-out extraordinary as she reveals the extent of Big Edie's big narcissism without demonizing her. As the young Big Edie, Lange evokes the broken personality of a woman in her prime who aspired to be a star but who became a bored wife and mother instead. When she sings with her piano man, Gould (Malcolm Gets), she's transported and transporting, in a stupor of audience love like Judy Garland. Big Edie hardly cares when her marriage to Phelan Beale (Ken Howard) disintegrates. Meanwhile, she urges Little Edie to have both love and a singing career, but her actions - manipulating Little Edie out of New York and back home - are more vindictive. Lange hams it up in "Grey Gardens," without plummeting into parody." (Boston Globe)
"As for Jessica Lange? Magnificent in both youth and dotage, but then viewers expect no less from her." (Newsday)
"Jessica Lange's Big Edie is an enigmatic, lonely figure, exuding a low-level warmth that keeps her daughter orbiting around her like a satellite. She sometimes fades into the background, allowing Barrymore to preen in the spotlight before chastening her with a passive-aggressive slap." (Salon.com)
