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Socialite Barbara Baekeland's (Julianne Moore) hefty helping of crazy doesn't do much to stabilize her frustrated husband Brooks (Stephen Dillane) or troubled son Tony (Eddie Redmayne). The film begins in 1946 New York and jumps across decades and long periods of time as the spouses grow increasingly distant and do twisted things like Brooks stealing Tony's girlfriend and Barbara sleeping with the guy that just slept with Tony, all before the mom, son and that same guy get it on together. Eww.

Big question: Can this account of a true story, which all leads up to Barbara's murder in 1972, show what was so special and tragic about this messed-up clan?

Skip it: It's nice to vicariously experience London and Paris but director Tom Kalin never explains why we should care about these spoiled brats. (Especially when Moore's over-the-top performance indulges an actress who's always struggled to rein it in.) Rather than tracing the accumulating effects of familial dysfunction, "Grace" leaps around, without insight, as if we can't handle too much of one at a time—which, actually, is exactly how you'll feel after a few minutes of this pretentious hooey.

Catch it: If you want to test your tolerance for Tony's excruciating voiceover, in which he says things like, "People cease to understand you when you need understanding the most" and, about his standing between his warring parents, "I was the steam when hot meets cold."

Bottom line: Um, not a movie to see with the parents. Savagely stupid and gracefully painful, "Savage Grace" is what happens when biographies aim only for well-lit vistas and the proper high-class pronunciation of "dahhhhling."

Bonus: At one point the characters consider whether or not they'd eat a pound of human flesh for $10 million. So at least the movie does give you something of value to think about!

[“Savage Grace” is also available through “IFC In Theaters,” a video on demand service from select cable providers and DirecTV.]

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