SnoopyStyle In 1973, brothers Albert Maysles (Arye Gross) and David Maysles (Louis Ferreira) arrive in East Hampton, NY to do a documentary about mother and daughter Edith 'Big Edie' Ewing Bouvier Beale (Jessica Lange) and Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale (Drew Barrymore) living in the rundown Grey Gardens estate. Little Edie's famous cousin Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Jeanne Tripplehorn) used to visit during the summer. In flashbacks starting in 1936, Little Edie simply wants to be a famous dancer. Big Edie wants her to find a husband with a long leash. Her father Phelan Beale (Ken Howard) wants someone to take care of her. Instead, she's in New York sleeping with married Julius 'Cap' Krug (Daniel Baldwin). Phelan leaves Big Edie. Little Edie starts losing her hair and gets pulled back home by Big Edie. When Phelan dies, Big Edie refuses to sell Grey Gardens with only a small trust that can't maintain the estate.The acting is excellent. Lange is never wrong and Barrymore does a nice job in her older role. The women's story in their earlier days is not quite dramatic enough. It is their older selves where their compelling characters become truly dramatic. The years of disappointments and their old wounds make them great characters. Their scenes with Jackie is terrific. Their relationship is built on years of unfulfilled wishes and faded glory.

TheLittleSongbird Grey Gardens is simply beautiful and deeply moving. The cinematography and scenery are colourful and lush, the soundtrack is lilting without feeling overbearing, the story is paced accordingly and makes me ache with emotion thinking about it and the script is a healthy balance of poignancy while never becoming too maudlin. Grey Gardens is directed with efficiency and the two lead characters are written so well that it is easy for me to empathise with them. I like Drew Barrymore, but I have not seen her this good in a long time, I'd go as far to say this is her best work. She has a perfect match in Jessica Lange who is mesmerising and the two have great chemistry between them. Overall, beautiful. 10/10 Bethany Cox

frncsbrennan An American tragedy if there ever was one: A story of two fallen women, mother and daughter. This film is best appreciated along with the original documentary of same name, done in 1975. In the 2009 film, Lange and Barrymore are both outstanding. Drew deserved her Golden Globe with her best performance. She captures the look and emotional immaturity of "Little Edie." The one thing she didn't capture was the flashes of Edie's brilliant mind. As young women, both mother and daughter were stunning beauties, but they fancied themselves as singers and dancers, which neither were. Little Edie, if she had a true talent, would probably have been in poetry, her brother was an excellent writer-only her untreated mental illness held her back. In a nutshell, these two women were used to having servants and having everything done for them, and who had the rug pulled out from under them by Big Edie's separation and their following lack of money. A reversal of fortune. As time passed, Mother Beale became lonely and she was dominating by nature, while her daughter was gentle and sweet, mentally ill, and had no other place to go. They kept each other company for 20 years, and without servants, they simply stopped doing anything. They never took out the garbage or cleaned, and were surrounded by cats and even fed the critters in the attic. They simply entertained each other as if they both were still in high society, reliving their past glories and current resentments. The Beale women were like modern day Magnificent Ambersons or Blanche Dubois's, holding onto their past gentility while being unable to see for themselves what they had become. A Fascinating story showing the fine line between success and failure, and the difference between talent and ambition. These ladies sought their life's fulfillment in places in which they had no talent. Little Edie was brilliant and artistic; she just wasn't an actress or dancer.

Jay Harris Drew Barrymore & Jessica Lange, two of our better actresses portray two exceedingly selfish, spoiled rich women who through their own stupidity fall on very bad times.If the mother & daughter they portray were not related to Jacqueline Kennedy-Onasis, we probably would probably never have heard of them.There was a documentary made about these two in 1976,which was popular.Why I do not know, except that if I had seen it I would not have seen this very long 104 minute bore from HBO.It won a few Emmy's this year, Ken Howard & Jeane Tripplehorn won for playing the husband & father to the 2 women. Jeanne won for playing Jackie Kennedy-Onasis. Again why I do not know.Both Jessica & Drew play such unlikeable women,why would any one even care what happened to them. Daniel Baldwin plays the lover of Drew.This is a well made film that to me became a big bore, because the 2 main characters were such hateful selfish nasties,I could not care for any of the film.The only decent guys in the movie were the 2 sons & brothers of Big & 'Lil Edie. & they disappear after there scene..HBO missed on this.I just cant figure why this has such a high rating on IMDbRatings: *1/2* (out of 4); 42 points (out of 100) IMDb 3 (out of 10)