“Big Edie” and “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale—close relatives of Jacqueline Onassis who lived together for years in a crumbling Long Island, N.Y., mansion—were immortalized in the 1973 documentary Grey Gardens and, more recently, a Broadway musical. Now Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore portray the mother and daughter in this TV movie, which dramatizes their descent from New York high society to suburban squalor.
As Big Edie, Lange is characteristically excellent, etching a portrait of monstrous yet pitiful selfishness and self-delusion. But the movie belongs to Barrymore, who takes her character from spirited young beauty to aging crackpot with impressive technique and poignant emotion. Saturday, April 18, at 8 p.m., HBO
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