Diagonaldi Very well executed

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

irenic-43376 I remember reading about this film and thinking Yuck! No way do I want to see this. Then years later I read the novel and thought Hmmm - how on earth would someone turn this compilation of correspondence, excerpts of novels and interviews into a film? (Did not make the connection with the aforementioned movie review). So I had to find out, and I must say it was done beautifully. Spoiler follows.Of course, you can only fill 90 minutes with so much detail. I feel, however, that the film should have included Tony's psychiatric history; most people watching the movie would not realize how profoundly ill he was. The casting was perfect, particularly Redmayne and Moore, who deliver the charm and intelligence that defined these people. The film perfectly depicts how self-absorbed Mama and Papa Baekeland were, but misses the sometimes hilarious antics of the wealthy circle they moved in.

lanitasanchez I loved this movie.....loved the locations in the film; made you feel like you were there; what kept me intrigued was Julianne Moore's performance....I was shocked when I got to the end of the movie and realized this was based on true events.....I highly recommend this film. Sick and twisted but well done. The son in this movie also provides an outstanding performance. The music in the film gave you a real feel of the time period these events occurred. Some parts of the movie may not be for everyone, but it gives you an in depth view of how twisted everyone is in this family. This movie makes me want to read the book and learn more about the woman portrayed in the film.

Roedy Green This is the approximately true life story of Bakelite heir Antony Baekeland starting at birth. His parents are swingers of a sort. His mother is not so much motivated by sex as by manipulating people. She enjoys humiliating her husband. Juliane Moore portrays the mother not so much as an cruel villain, but as someone very self-centred, selfish, with a low tolerance for boredom. She like to make a scene just for the entertainment value of it as for the fun of shocking the onlookers.Barney Clark plays Anthony at 12. He a weird kid, simultaneously infantile and precocious. His parents keep him isolated from other children, possibly because they fear homosexual sex play.Eddie Redmayne plays Anthony at 19. He looks completely different from Barney Clark. It was not immediately clear this new character was Anthony. He reminded me of Bill Gates with his way of speaking, deadpan and freckles. Redmayne has startling sharply angled features and very thick lips. At first I found him unsympathetic, but then warmed to him as his parents screwed him over.Dad steals his girl friend. Mom shares his boyfriend. I would think Anthony, who was an heir, would have bolted, but he did not. There is a scene when Mom seduces Antony by grinding her pelvis against his crotch until she comes then giving him a hand job. It was not so much seduction, as she decided, and he did as he was told. This is pretty raw.The movie meanders along without apparent direction other than parents behaving worse and worse, keeping Anthony socially isolated, and Anthony getting weirder and weirder. But it is a real life and real lives don't have scriptwriters.Much of the movie is not clear unless you read the closing credits which are in quite small type which tell the events that happened after the police arrived at the end.Hint: pay specially close to attention to anything to do with a dog collar or a pet dog that "died".

johnstonjames uh. codependency? is that what we call incest these days? the mother crossed the line and did something very damaging to the parent child relationship. what she did gave her son issues that he could not possibly deal with. i do not condone a taboo like incest but i thought this movie was riveting and often brilliant.for those uptight viewers who would never get it in a million years, this movie does not approve or condone incest. in fact almost the opposite. i mean look what happened.neither was the film mindlessly judgmental. i might be an uptight Christian prude, but i'm still grown up enough to recognize a film with depth and insight. i've seen Bertolucci's 'Luna' and many foreign films like the works of Pasolini, so in a way this was nothing new. i admit i was still shocked and freaked out beyond words (i had no idea what the movie was about), but i composed myself, regained my senses and realized this was a film of compassionate insights into a situation that is awfully hard to understand or relate to. i mean i loved my mother dearly but...i don't know, that was a little too loving in my opinion.i don't know what actually happened. i googled this whole thing and some say it stretches the truth some say it was entirely accurate from the son's testimony. whatever, it was a excellent film with incredible performances by the entire cast and a compelling (if not disturbing)screenplay.some people will turn this off and be afraid to watch. not me. through-out my life i have seen so many people behaving badly and so much decadence and corruption that i would'nt be surprised by anything anybody does no matter what their beliefs are. most people lie and well, i don't like what i see my fellow(an overstatement)doing so why would i hold anything against a movie like this. especially when other Christians and the church are so immersed in corruption and lies. remember Haggard and how he told us he was pure and clean, only to find he is seeing a male prostitute and doing meth.sometimes it seems like art and the movies are the last havens for truth and insight. i think i'll go watch some Sister Wendy. she understands art better than anyone and probably would size this one up instantly. whoever reads this, God bless, good luck with the world you'll need it. hang in there and always keep trying the best you can. there are still some of us left that "know".