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Far From Heaven
by Larry Carroll
November 8, 2002
www.countingdown.com

Far From Heaven begins with a breathtaking crane shot that focuses its gaze on a foliage-laden tree, then pans down to reveal late-Fifties Hartford, Connecticut in all its innocent splendor. As the townspeople walk through the square exchanging pleasantries - men in suits and women in brightly colored dresses - your first reaction is one of comfort and relief as you look back on a simpler time. But as Billy Joel once sang, "The good old days/they weren't always good", and director Todd Haynes (Safe) agrees. Masterfully blending the conventions of that era's populist filmmaking with modern hindsight, Haynes shows us what really went on behind the picket fence of the family next door.

The film is a loving tribute to director Douglas Sirk, whose florid melodramas took formulaic soap-opera material and relocated it to a grander stage nearly a half-century ago. Sirk found success in treating a genre that was looked down upon with respect and gravity but, ironically, films like Magnificent Obsession and Written on the Wind have recently been turned into cult movies for geeks to chuckle at during midnight screenings. I'm not going to say that there isn't some fun to be had in watching the prim and proper obsess over ridiculous minutiae as their walls come crumbling down (not to mention the possible subtexts of Rock Hudson's lines), but to watch Sirk's films in a strict Mystery Science Theater 3000 mindset is to do yourself a disservice.

Haynes uses Heaven to return the tone to where it should be. In recent years the era and its perceived innocence has, for better or worse, become punch line fodder in movies like Pleasantville and Blast From the Past. But Haynes, like Sirk, insists on handling his subject matter with a reverential attitude that resists the temptation to laugh at these people and instead serves as a serious exploration of the kinds of problems that their perceived "perfection" presented them with.

Far From Heaven gives us the Whitakers, the stereotypical image of a Fifties nuclear family: Dad works at an office where men call the shots and secretaries bring them coffee; Mom spends afternoons perfecting her hairstyle and gossiping with the other housewives; the two children (one boy and one girl, natch) always ask permission to leave the dinner table and apologize to the folks if a word so foul as "heck" should ever slip from their mouths; the black housekeeper watches it all and speaks only when addressed. The Whitakers are seen as a model family, envied by their neighbors to such a degree that the society page of the local newspaper is even doing a feature on matriarch Cathy (Julianne Moore, Hannibal).

But there are some cracks in the dam. Dad Frank (Dennis Quaid, Frequency) is struggling with a predilection towards men that is tearing him up inside. Telling his wife that he's working late, Frank instead wanders into the dark sections of town and finds his way into unmarked bars where homosexuals congregate. After a powerful scene depicting Cathy's discovery of Frank's dirty little secret, the couple seeks out a psychiatrist in an attempt to find a cure for his "disease".

Frank's gay struggles have distanced him from his wife, both emotionally and physically, but the couple continues to keep up their facade. They host parties, keep their daily schedules intact, and force that ever-present smile to remain on their faces. But these are human beings, not the two-dimensional stereotypes you'd find elsewhere, and they long to be loved just like real people do. It is this longing that pushes Frank deeper and deeper into his highball glass - and Cathy into the arms of their gentle African American gardener Raymond (Dennis Haysbert, Love & Basketball).

While interracial relationships and a homosexual's right to live on his/her own terms might not yet be unanimously approved of in modern-day America, the situation has certainly improved over the past fifty years. Haynes uses these plot-points not to preach about modern tolerance (we could reasonably assume that most people who see this movie are of a progressive mind) but to instead show that people like these were prisoners, trapped in their own perfect little snowglobes.

Moore provides the backbone for Far From Heaven, giving the finest performance of her remarkable career. The actress brings humanity to a role that easily could have been swallowed up by a need to parody an archetype. She plays Cathy as intelligent, clueless, tolerant, oppressive, happy, and backed into a corner, often simultaneously. It's a whirlwind of a performance that will make you realize that the world your mother or grandmother lived in wasn't what all that she says it was. Forget about one Oscar nomination for Julianne Moore this year - she should get all five.

Finishing up a year that has been a real renaissance for his career (after the wonderful but quite different The Rookie), Dennis Quaid outdoes himself as Frank in a role that is the epitome of fearless acting. You can see the conflict within his soul - society tells him to do one thing, his heart tells him something else - and you can also see that he loves his family and wife and is scared to death of losing them. As if channeling Rock Hudson, Quaid excels in a part that Mr. Hudson probably wished many times that he could have played. The character of Frank Whitaker goes a long way towards making us understand not only what gay people went through fifty years ago, but also the struggles they have today when still in the closet and wrestling with who they really are.

If Quaid got the dream Rock Hudson role, than Dennis Haysbert most definitely got to play Sidney Poitier. He's just what the doctor ordered - soft-spoken but intimidating, proud of who he is but not wanting to stir things up - and above all else, he just wants to be Cathy's friend and give her a shoulder to cry on. I hate to admit it, but it seems in recent years that almost every role for a black actor has been loud, abrasive, egotistical, criminal, or often all four. It's a joy to see the type of role that would have been written for Poitier so many years ago, and Haysbert sinks his teeth into it.

But the biggest stars might just be the people behind the camera. Haynes, a director of immense talent whose work thus far has managed to stay beneath the radar of most filmgoers, deserves to be recognized far and wide for his achievements with this film. Unlike Gus Van Sant's Psycho, he mimics the work of a master without plagiarizing it. This is a classic film with modern sensibilities - not an easy task to pull off. And the people he has chosen to work with - cinematographer Edward Lachman, production designer Mark Friedberg and costume designer Sandy Powell, among others - have all collaborated to create a movie that is not only reminiscent of Fifties films, but manages to recall the very best of that era.

The film ends the same way it begins - beautifully, with a crane shot panning up into the trees that surround the town. Far From Heaven is a film that succeeds on so many levels. Whether you're a Sirk afficionado or not, whether you think movies nowadays are junk or have never seen anything pre-Jaws, regardless of your age or background, this film will touch you.

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