51
Metascore
28 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversMoney, madness, incest and murder! Just the recipe for a twisted mesmerizer of a movie, if it doesn't creep you out.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterU.S. viewers may be put off by its tangled sexual motifs and find its implied social critique a little close to the bone. But even Stateside, Julianne Moore, in her most challenging role in years, will win plaudits and attract mature audiences to a thoroughly absorbing and polished piece of work.
- 70New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinHoward A. Rodman's script has a lot of juice, and the rhythms are so pregnant that the air vibrates with something, even if you're not sure what.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanThe director, Tom Kalin, stages acid duels, but he should have provided more psychological structure. Though Moore, a great actress, turns fury into verbal music, we're never quite sure what's driving her.
- 67The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasSavage Grace should have the force of Greek tragedy, but Kalin's chamber drama feels curiously stifling and flat, and Moore's volatile turn isn't enough to quicken its pulse.
- 50VarietyVarietyScripter Howard A. Rodman's treatment of an enthralling book is more a series of vignettes rather than a fully connected work, and helmer Tom Kalin seems unable to decide how much Sirkian melodrama to introduce into the heady mix. Gone are the reasons to be fascinated with these people, merely replaced with maddeningly over-arch dialogue and struggles with characterization.
- 50TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxHas everything one could ask of a true-crime expose.
- 40Film ThreatFilm ThreatTo be sure, it's a very pretty, well acted production; however, that doesn't make up for the fact that I hated every minute of it.
- 40The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottProust might have known what to do with the Baekelands, but Mr. Kalin and Mr. Rodman don't make much more of them than the mess they apparently already were.
- 30Village VoiceVillage VoiceA tawdry nighttime soap that marvels without insight at its characters' despicable behavior: It squanders a major performance by Moore.