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.

The story of Big Edie and Little Edie is interesting, and if you can watch it for cheap (or free) I recommend it, if for nothing else, to see the dangers of hoarding, as well as of the dangers of a truly unhealthy mother/ daughter co-dependency. The movie itself is not quite what I expected... I expected more detail maybe... something that explained them a bit better. Drew Barrymore's accent seems forced and while she tries hard to sell it, it always seems to be like an ill fitting article of clothing on her. I also didn't understand the point of she and Jessica Lange wearing blue contacts, given that I don't think that most people would even know that their real life counterparts had blue eyes. I mean, no reference is made to their being famous for them... it isn't like Frank Sinatra who was actually known as "Old Blue Eyes".

Well, first of all, I heard about this movie on Ellen Degeneres when she had an interview with Drew Barrymore about the movie. Ellen said and claimed for people if possible to watch the original documentary before the movie so you could not only fill blank fields in the documentary with the movie but also notice the great performance of the actresses, Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange. So I did it and I have no regrets about it.I never heard about the Bouvier women before, and I must say that, in their sadness, their are one of the most amazing and strongest people we could ever know as examples of a lot of people around the world that you may find in your family, neighborhood, city or even in the media... because their are the perfect characterization of what the society is able to do with themselves.The original documentary is a gem. There's no other word to express it. There isn't any brilliance in it but there's a lot of humanity and self knowing that everybody should care about. Also there isn't any brilliance in the movie, first of all because it's a movie made for television and not for theaters, so there's a lot of production limitations in it but nothing that can twist the original idea to promote the lives of two women that lived in a word totally away from everything as a result of personal traumas from wrong relationships and decisions in life.The performances of the actresses are mesmerizing. Drew Barrymore, an actress that is known for romantic comedies and NEVER for dramas, do a magnificent work in a entire drama movie and her dedication to the character is evident all the time. Jessica Lange is terrific. There are times that the make up is not so convincing but their acting and their body transformation for the roles during the different ages set in the movie are so convincing that make up is only a forgettable detail.There's no way to watch this movie without watching the original documentary, really! Also, there's no way people should pass both away because we are not talking about two eccentric women from Jackie O's family, but about two women and the reasons that ties them so hard to each other. And their reasons are great explanations for most of the bonds between people around the world: the love, hate, regrets and, most of all, confident and self needing.It's not a piece of art, but it's a great and respectful peace of work.

A dramatization inspired by the Maysles Brothers' documentary Grey Gardens, starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore as Big and Little Edie Beale, Jackie Kennedy Onassis' eccentric aunt and cousin. The documentary is generally considered a classic, and gives you lots of hints about who these two women are, but few real explanations. Writer/director Suscy attempts to get to the bottom of the story. The mystery of the doc is nice, but it's also good to have the whole story. Plus, I definitely respond better to dramatizations than documentaries. I would accuse the documentary, or at least raise some slight food for thought, of being a tad exploitative. I thought it presented these people almost like they were a freak show. Yes, I can see that the Maysles had sympathy for the women, but it could definitely be seen as a little mean. This dramatization doesn't have that problem whatsoever. You can completely see who these people are, where they come from, and you feel their pain more deeply. The biggest thing to recommend about this film is Drew Barrymore. I'm sure she'll win an Emmy for it. She should be winning, or at least nominated for the Oscar. I've long felt that she's a talented actress who doesn't challenge herself enough. This proves it. I hope she finds more roles as good as this one in the future. She has matured fantastically. Lange is good, too, of course. Jean Tripplehorn, also an actress who never lived up to her full potential (presumably her career died with Waterworld), appears briefly in the movie's most powerful sequence as Jackie O. The actual film, though it's well done in general (I'd also point to the awesome make-up), isn't especially well directed. It does scream "television". Not a big deal with so much good stuff on screen elsewhere.