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Review

Writer/director Todd Haynes has reached a peak of artistic perfection with Far from Heaven. From the incredible casting to the cinematography by Edward Lachman to the soaring melodramatic music by Elmer Bernstein to the spectacular sets and costumes, this film just is 1957 - with one huge difference, there is a gay character. The film is based loosely on Douglas Sirk's All that Heaven Allows (linked in the related products field), a melodrama that focused on a relationship between a widowed suburban housewife (Jane Wyman) and her hunky gardener (Rock Hudson). The adaptation is more homage than film remake - it's really quite extraordinary to see both films.

The Whitakers are the perfect suburban couple. Frank (Quaid) is a salesman for Magnatek, a television manufacturer and Kathy (Moore) is a housewife - raising their two children and managing the household. Crises strikes the family quite early in the film as Frank is arrested on a morals charge which he dismisses with the drunken wave of his hand - never to be discussed again. But Frank's demons come to the surface quickly as he finds a corner alley gay bar in his home town of Hartford, Conn. Kathy decides to bring her husband some dinner at the office and discovers him in a man's arms. Frank enters therapy and Kathy finds herself emotionally lost as her husband sinks. She turns to her black gardener, Raymond Deegan (Haysbert) for friendship. When Frank hears of this friendship he lashes out at Kathy, accusing her of ruining their standing in the neighborhood by befriending a black man. The community is rocked by their friendship, Kathy is shunned and is forced to drop Raymond as a friend. The drama reaches a peak after the Witakers take a "much needed" vacation in Florida and Frank meets a young man.

The three lead actors, Dennis Quaid, Julianne Moore and Dannis Haysbert are superb in difficult roles that require lots of body language and facial expressions to convey what couldn't be said in the fifties. The lush sets are perfection, it is as if one is entering the fifties. Julianne Moore's costumes require special mention - she was pregnant during the filming but one couldn't tell because of the brilliance of the designs. Elmer Bernstein's score is one of the best we've heard, emotional and soaring music that is quite fitting for the film.

We can't rave enough about this film - essential - important - brilliant.

Scott Cranin