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The 1950’s, upper-middle class. An executive husband. An
ideal wife. Happy, motivated children. A storybook house and garden.
A perfect family whose picture is used in advertisements. But
the reality is…gasp!...this fairy tale life is actually
far from heaven.
The marriage of the most admired couple in town, Frank (Dennis
Quaid) and Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore), is suddenly troubled
when Cathy finds Frank with another man. Frank struggles with
his homosexuality, and even goes into counseling for it, but clearly
has no greater desire and eventually leaves his wife. Meanwhile,
Cathy is falling in love with Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), a black
man. They spend time together and soon the neighbors are talking.
This leads to the persecution of Raymond and his daughter and
they decide to restart their lives elsewhere for their own safety.
This brief outline is, for the most part, the extent of the plot
– and the extent of our interest. But Far From Heaven
goes far beyond its simple, melodramatic story. This is no ordinary
period film. This is a movie about the fifties, clearly made in
the style of movies in the fifties.
The opening titles and closing credits are all old style. The
acting is often dry – so dry you quickly have to assume
they’re doing this on purpose. Many of the lines are trite
and scenes are stylized. The sets are obviously sets and even
the view from the back window is totally fake. Far From Heaven
imitates, in as many ways as it can, the lower level film work
of the fifties. And yet…it’s good. Seriously. The
picture is always beautiful and full of color – almost too
much color. The art direction, costumes and cinematography are
all fantastically done.
Far From Heaven has been hailed as “genius”
by many critics for its imitation of the works of director Douglas
Sirk. To be honest though, I don’t know if I can sustain
that. Is it intelligently satirical? Sure. Clever? Absolutely.
But a work of genius? I don’t know. Maybe I don’t
know enough about film history. Maybe I am just missing something
important. But from a simple, straightforward perspective, Far
From Heaven is just a glorified 50’s film.
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