Review – Grey Gardens

The Maysles brothers made a whole career out of taking cameras where cameras usually didn’t go, but this is one of the weirdest places they ever shot a documentary. Apparently Jaqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onasis had a vaguely dotty aunt and seriously crazy cousin living in a decaying mansion in the Hamptons. As an intimate portrait of the mentally ill, this isn’t the worst production I’ve ever seen (though Titticut Follies was better). However, it’s hard to watch for a couple of reasons. First, the two women seem unhappy. Their house looks comfortable enough (however dilapidated). Their lives are simple and quiet. And yet they’re constantly at each other, their proximity apparently making them even crazier than they might otherwise have been. The second –and more serious – source of discomfort is how swiftly the joke gets old. By midway through the film had become so tedious that it’s downright hard to watch. Overall, then, this is one of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen. See if desperate