There aren’t many films that inspire the kind of anguished vitriol quite like Grace. Parents, particularly expectant parents, are appropriately traumatized. Childless viewers, meanwhile, tend to see the film as confirmation that kids are now firmly off the table.
This is the lasting power of writer/director Paul Solet’s Grace, a film about a stillborn child resuscitated by its mother’s love. The child, however, proves to be unique, in that she requires fresh human blood to live. The film, celebrating its 10th anniversary this week, chronicles the extreme lengths that a mother will go in order to protect her child and it remains as captivating and melancholy today as it did back in 2009.
Spoilers follow…
Grace dedicates its first few scenes to establishing the uncomfortably realistic marriage of Madeline (Jordan Ladd) and Michael (Stephen Park). They’re introduced having dispassionate intercourse – she stares at the ceiling while he pumps away, suggesting that their sex life (and possibly marriage) is unsatisfying, particularly for her. This is quickly proven untrue; the couple is actually attempting to get pregnant (it’s one of the many times that Solet subverts expectations).
Early in the film, the weight of what goes unsaid fills the screen, fueling nearly every character interaction. One small example is the way that Madeline prepares Michael a separate (meat-based) dinner, despite the fact that she is vegan and it disgusts her to handle raw protein. The best example is Michael’s overbearing mother, Vivian (Gabrielle Rose), who badgers Madeline over dinner about her diet and her choice of doctor. Vivian is very strong-willed and opinionated: she regularly dotes on Michael and infantilizes her husband Henry (Serge Houde). The majority of Vivian’s attention, however, is directed at her future grand-child and her belief that Madeline is incapable of making healthy choices on its behalf. The family matriarch argues that she knows best, wielding her status as an experienced mother like a weapon against Madeline.
This is particularly destructive behaviour when it is later revealed that Madeline has already suffered two miscarriages, and the devastating loss has clearly taken a psychological toll on her. There is an implicit suggestion that Madeline chooses a midwife rather than a conventional doctor not just because she has a pre-existing relationship (in every sense of the word) with Dr. Patty Lang (Samantha Ferris), but also because of a mistrust in conventional medicine and its ties to her unsuccessful pregnancies.
The combative family dynamic and Madeline’s challenging pregnancy history collide when she has an unexpected health scare. This event prompts Vivian to call in her own doctor, Richard Sohn (Malcolm Stewart), a presumptuous elitist who nearly induces Madeline at 31 weeks until Patty intervenes on her behalf.
The near-fatal error is another Solet misdirection. It seems as though Madeline and the baby are out of danger, only to end up in a horrible car crash on the way home. Michael is killed and Madeline loses the baby. In grief, she carries the child to term and delivers it as planned in Patty’s clinic, where her love resuscitates Grace (just as Patty foretold when she discussed the magical early moments of a child’s life when it bonds with its mother).
From here on, Madeline will do everything, including murder, to protect her daughter.
What’s lost in the discussion of the film is Ladd’s incredible performance as Madeline. Grace is rightfully acknowledged for its unflinching consideration of themes of enduring maternal love and obsession, but Ladd’s dedication to Madeline’s slowly unraveling mental and physical state tends to be overlooked. Grace is entirely her film: Ladd is the lynchpin that holds the psychosis together, particularly when juxtaposed with Gabrielle Rose, who is also great, but in a completely batshit crazy way. The grounded interplay between the two women – both of them mothers who are completely dedicated to what they feel the child needs – ensures that even the most monstrous developments don’t tip the film into farce or ridiculousness.
Another impressive element is the production’s use of colour to subtly convey mental state. Early in the film, when circumstances (and people) are happy, Grace is awash in warm shades of yellow. As the film progresses and Madeline’s desperation to provide for – and protect – her child increases, the use of natural light and external shots decrease. This effectively shifts the film’s colour palette to a sickly grey/green, a visual aesthetic that is grotesquely complemented by rotting fruit in the kitchen, as well as a change in Ladd’s costumes and make-up to reinforce her utter exhaustion. One small touch that makes a huge visual statement? Her once springy up-do eventually becomes lethargic and dilapidated and the shine from her lustrous blond locks becomes dulled. Paired with Madeline’s bloodied, shapeless clothes and the increasingly pronounced circles under her eyes and the wear of Grace’s demanding feeding schedule saturates the screen.
Late in the film, when Vivian pays a surprise visit (in an attempt to discover the whereabouts of Dr. Sohn and simultaneously prove neglect), she inquires about Madeline’s health, questioning how much she’s eating and sleeping. There’s even a suggestion by Sohn before his death that the young mother is anemic. The genius of Grace is that these are all realistic concerns for new mothers – particularly those, like Madeline, who lack the social support of a partner, daycare provider or family to help ease the load. And yet, because this is a horror film, the truth about Madeline’s increasingly haggard appearance is much more nefarious.
At its heart, Grace cleverly riffs on the horror of being a new parent. Unlike other films that focus on death and babies, however, Grace isn’t a monster (at least not in the conventional sense). She is very clearly undead and her reactions to mundane practices such as baths and baby formula are terrifying; but Grace never actually hurts anyone except for Madeline, on whom she is reliant for nutrition.
No, in Grace, it is the adults in the film who are responsible for all of the death and destruction:
- Vivian, who plots against her daughter-in-law in an effort to abduct her granddaughter;
- Dr Sohn, who nearly kills Madeline and Grace early because he is full of hubris regarding his own abilities and then unethically agrees to spy on Madeline for Vivian; and
- Patty, who becomes so obsessed with her former student/lover that her new lover, Shelly, deliberately lies to her about Madeline’s increasingly urgent calls, and in so doing allows things to go much further than they should have.
And then there is Madeline, whose efforts to protect her daughter means refusing to go to the hospital or ask anyone (other than Patty) for help.
As a result, Madeline winds up as both victim and aggressor and, in a coda that challenges Let The Right One In for depressingly bleak endings, Madeline is ultimately shackled to a monstrous motherhood that will clearly only become progressively worse. It’s a moment that elicits chuckles and gasps in equal measure, but on reflection, the reality is absolutely dreadful and horrifying.
That alone is a pretty solid rationale for recommending Grace…
…although perhaps not to expectant parents.
