Jackie Kennedy had spent her childhood in Newport/the Hamptons - with "old money" relatives. Her aunt Edie Beale and Edie's daughter, "Little Edie", lived in a near oceanfront mansion called 'Grey Gardens'. What was once an opulent place turned into a dump over the years, as the two ran out of money and interest in the home. They got used to living in unsanitary conditions (the cats went to the bathroom on the floors; rats and raccoons came in thru the many openings the years of no-maintenance had allowed) and were, to some, most eccentric.
Jessica Lange plays Big Edie. She looks just like her and gives a great performance, tho from seeing the tapes of the real people I think she should have been meaner to little Edie.
Then there's Drew Barrymore. As Little Edie??!!! She lisps! I couldn't believe it. But my daughter saw it before I did and said she was just like Little Edie and got some kind of assistance to get rid of her lisp for the role. I like Drew Barrymore, and I was bowled over by her performance in this film. It was just like watching the original tapes, which the movie is based on.
Okay. Storyline. It's more of a portrait of two people than a story. But if you have to eke out a plot, I'd say that in the 1970's, when Jackie Kennedy married Ari Onassis, the Edies were about to be evicted because of the shape of their house. When it hit the press, Jackie visited them and paid for the house to be all cleaned up and redone inside.
Some time before the house was redone, two men asked if they could make a film on the Beales and the two Edies said sure. All they had to do was be themselves and they'd be filmed going about their everyday lives. There are two DVDs on Amazon.com that are the original movies these men took. I'm not sure why I find them incredible. I guess it's "how did they get so down and out?" and "how can they stand to live in abject filth?"
The movie is essentially the re-enacting of these tapes. But what it offers that the tapes do not is the early years of the Edies, which are well worth seeing.
