Julianne Moore plays "model" 1950s housewife Cathy Whitaker in writer-director Todd Haynes' “Far From Heaven.”
Far From Heaven:
Pleasantville meets American Beauty
It's difficult to write about a great film. First, words can't do a great film justice. Second, while a typical film's flaws usually jump out at me -- and thus give me plenty to write about -- a near-flawless film's elements are so well woven together that it's difficult for me to focus on the film's individual elements; I tend to think of the film only as a whole, and that concept is difficult to communicate.
But I'll try.
"Far From Heaven" is set in Connecticut in the late 1950s. Frank Whitaker (Dennis Quaid) and Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) have an "Ozzie and Harriet"-like marriage, at least on the surface. Frank is a television-set sales executive and Cathy is his devout housewife who keeps a busy social schedule with other housewives (the maid does most of the housework). Frank and Cathy have two children, a boy and a girl.
The Whitakers' picture-perfect life unravels when Cathy discovers that Frank has been coming home late from work because he's been having gay dalliances. During her marital turmoil, Cathy is comforted by her gardener, Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), who is black, and the town is set ablaze with gossip about Cathy and Raymond's relationship.
Every element of "Far From Heaven" is nearly flawless: The performances, the screenplay, the direction, the cinematography, costume design, set design, all of them beyond or nearly beyond reproach. (OK, I wasn't crazy about the score, but I'm not an expert on music.)
One film critic whose review I read probably was right when he called "Far From Heaven" the best film so far this year.
As much as I'd like to find something for which to nail "Far From Heaven," what appear to be possible flaws in the film might actually have been writer-director Todd Haynes' intent.
For instance, the Whitakers' two children are presented as little more than props from '50s television shows, but perhaps that's how Haynes wanted us to see the children: As being lost among their parents' personal problems.
And while I would like to have known more about Frank's homosexuality -- I am intrigued by the concept of a Ward Cleaver-like man living a double life in the '50s -- perhaps Haynes intentionally limited our exposure to it in order to give us the feel of the furtiveness that gay men had to have back in the '50s.
Even my biggest problem with the film -- the fact that Cathy and Raymond never consummate their relationship -- might serve to purposefully illustrate just how taboo interracial relationships were back in the '50s. (Still, I don't think that it would have wrecked the film, or somehow sullied their relationship, had Cathy and Raymond gotten it on just once.)
"Far From Heaven" might seem like a farce, but it isn't; Haynes treats his subject matter seriously, and even when his characters mouth lines that could have been taken right out of a '50s TV show, although we laugh, we don't lose sight of the fact that, at least according to Haynes' vision, the '50s were about appearances and people were not free to be themselves.
"Far From Heaven" looks like "Pleasantville" but feels like "American Beauty."
