Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper

(RATING: ☆☆☆☆ out of 5)

THIS FILM IS RECOMMENDED.

IN BRIEF: A well made documentary that has enough style and flair to hide a few deficiencies.

GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: A up-close look into the relationship of a well known mother and her equally famous son.

Newscaster Anderson Cooper produced this documentary as a means to connect more openly with his mother. Their atypical lives are on full display and while the film may want to express a candid view into the Vanderbilt family and their past, it does not go into much depth about Mr. Cooper's private life and sexuality, his mother's digressions, or her estrangement from one of her sons, Chris, from another marriage. Some areas are still taboo in this supposedly tell-all biography, but there is still plenty of footage and facts that remain fascinating and of historical interest.

Ms. Gloria Vanderbilt is now 91 years of age and her tumultuous life is shown from her "poor little rich girl" beginnings and the "trial of the century" child custody case through her three failed marriages including rocky relationships with Frank Sinatra and Sidney Lumet, to her successful sojourn into the world of fashion, art, and business. Less time is spent on Mr. Cooper and his own personal rise as a photo journalist and reporter, including his private gay life and his deliberate break with the family to achieve his own fame and fortune, an aspect that would have made the film more involving and honest.

Director Liz Garbus uses many imaginative ways to create a video scrapbook of the family's mercurial events by incorporating Ms. Vanderbilt's colorful art with archival footage that explains the many detours and obstacles in her life. The film is expertly assembled, with strong photography by Tom Hurwitz and skillful editing by Karen Sim, to help portray the various events that cover nearly a century of American history. Interviews with family members and friends add other points of view, although the film rarely shows any negative treatment of either Mr. Cooper or his mother.

The film focuses on little Gloria origins starting with the sudden death of her father and the abandonment of her court-designated "unfit" mother. Her life led her to rebellion and an abusive marriage at the age of seventeen. Other marriages failed including her relationship with famed conductor Leopold Stokowski, who was 40 years her senior. She dabbled in acting, modeling, and painting along her journey before finding true love with a Hollywood screenwriter, Wyatt Cooper, and giving birth to two sons, Carter (who committed suicide at the age of 22, as his mother watched helplessly) and his younger brother, Anderson.

The film is stylishly done, using popular music to help define certain eras. The images are uniformly strong, although some of the interviews between mother and son seem a tad rehearsed, purposely avoiding some topics. Certain scenes dwell on tragedy, such as the sudden death of Gloria's devoted husband and a staged visit to her dead son's grave-site. These segments are poignant but manipulative as well.

Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper is an intriguing look at this wealthy heiress and self-made business tycoon, even if some important details are missing. Perhaps, Ms. Vanderbilt's own words can sum up this woman succinctly: "I have inside me the image of a rock-hard diamond that nothing can get at, and nothing can crack, and I've always known that about myself." Her hard outer shell protects a fragile beauty that continues to shine. So does her film.

NOTE: The film is now showing on HBO and CNN. It was recently in competition at the Sundance Festival.

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The story of her life is full of great moments. Exquisite taste and superbly elegant. I highly admire Anderson Cooper because of his bright mind and full of content. Always his tv work is a guarantee of seriousness and full of insights. I would never miss anything by any chance a work made by Anderson. He is a contemporaneous tv icon and wishing he lives long long in good shape to see him working hard as as of now, really hope that.

I was really delighted listening the music of this documentary and the amazing amount of memories collected either physically and memorable accumulated and conserved.

Long life to Anderson!

I always thought I knew who Gloria Vanderbilt was and a bit of her history. I also learned early on that Anderson Cooper was her son. I did not know the continual tragedies she survived in her life, or how optimistic she was about life in spite of it all. After reading her It Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir I became more curious and learned about this documentary. So touching. Also very heart wrenching to hear her talk of her son, Carters suicide right before her eyes. It brought tears to my eyes. All I can say is she had a zeal for life that was almost childlike yet love was all she really wanted & wanted to give. Anderson was lucky to have known so much about her through their mutual communication before she passed. She was a remarkable woman.

My girl put on a movie for us - Nothing Left Unsaid - this quietly tumultuous Sunday. She has this innate sense of depth that is beyond any ocean I have ever sailed upon. Her dark beauty of mind, body, and soul that is simple in its complexity and steps forth to me already behind any walls I have raised about the keep of my castle self.

And there buried in the movie, a poignant tour de force, the Rolling Stones song that always wrecks me, far more than "Out of Time (from yet another movie soundtrack). But until now, only did so in the most private way. And never in such a backdrop. Who would have thought I could relate to the losses and regrets (and art) of Gloria Vanderbilt, and yes, even her youngest son, Anderson Cooper.

There are parallels here. A tightrope in crossing through life, perhaps. Her reflection that once you realize life is a tragedy, you can begin to live your life seems telling.

Someone once told me there are stages to grief, and wondered that I wasn't traveling through them in a timely manner after my brother passed. That approach confused me. By the time my Mom passed eighteen years later, I had finally figured out that grief doesn't care what stage you're in. It always has an undefinable intensity that you are either sharply aware of or that you have muted for a time, to do other things that life asks of you. You change in how you handle it, but it doesn't change.

Such a story, hopefully enough to overcome the shallow sense that would question how a "poor little rich girl" could be just as human in her losses and regrets as the anyone else. And more so in her expression of it in words, and most definitely in her art. This honest film has an undefinable intensity that you need to see if you subscribe to having a human heart.

Are the rich different? Living a life right out of a John Irving novel, in which the invisible strings of fate seem to undermine even the most glamorous and financially secure lives, the answer is "apparently not." In this unflinching look at the tragedies of his mother's life, some self-created from her very publicly scarred childhood, Anderson Cooper is also unafraid to show his personal pain as these tragedies have played out quite tangibly in his life. Anderson Cooper lays bare the family pain that most of us spend a great deal of energy to conceal, and the result is not only a love letter to his brave and unflinching mother, but to all of us. A transcendent experience that brings us beyond class structure to an understanding of how tragedy can shape our lives and bring about beautiful contributions - in art (Gloria) - and in bearing witness to others pain (Anderson). I can't quite put my finger on it, but this film feels as if it has created a new genre - beyond reality TV into REALITY TV. It is as if we were able to listen in as the Kardashian's attended confession. Moving, vivid, sophisticated, unrelenting, honest, and a true gift.