Grey Gardens (2009)

Recent HBO film inspired by the cult favorite 1975 documentary of the same name. Story concerns Edith Ewing Bouiver Beale and her daughter Edith Bovier Beale, aunt and cousin respectively to Jacqueline Bouiver Kennedy Onasis. The Edies became celebrates when the state of there dilapidated East Hampton, New York mansion (Grey Gardens) became widely known and the documentarians the Maysles brothers made their famous film about them. I refer you to my earlier blog post on the doc for more information. This film has the virtue of filling us in on more of the back story, and attempting to explain why these two once vibrant individuals just kind of stoped and let things fall in around them. We learn more about Big Edies prolonged and rather open affair with musician George 'Gould' Strong, and that Little Edie had a short lived affair with a former Secretary of the Interior. I'd recommend seeing the original documentary first, I think you'll get more out this film if you do. I thought that while this film is solid and a more well rounded telling of the story, it just can't compete with the overpowering weirdness of the original film.