Far From Heaven
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DVD details
Actor: Dennis Haysbert, Julianne MooreBrand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 107 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-04-01
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of Far From Heaven
DVD Review: Not too far...
Summary: 4 Stars
Todd Haynes' mini-epic of 1950's Americana is one of those films you recognize as something well-crafted and powerful, but you can't really tell why. I least I couldn't. Its overall effect is one of beauty, but a kind of superficial and disconnected beauty. Something more visceral, more gut-churning is missing from this grand homage to the films of an era often considered simpler, better.
But what isn't missing is precisely what makes Far From Heaven worth the watch. With surgical precision, Haynes exposes two topics that despite our misplaced belief that we're all 'beyond that,' still simmer beneath our society's smiling face: sexuality and race. Far From Heaven savagely deconstructs the myth of an American Eden in the not-so-distant past.
The axis of the film is Julianne Moore and along with Dennis Haybert, the only reason to stay with all its one hundred and eight minutes. Her portrayal as Cathleen Whittaker, the seemingly perfect ?berhouse-wife of Mr Magnatech himself, Frank Whittaker(Dennis Quaid), holds the film together when it threatens to disintegrate into a montage of social commentary clips.
Upon discovering her model husband in the arms of another man, Cathy's world of sweet banalities verges on collapse. For the loyal and always understanding angel of the baby boom home, the question remains, 'what to do?' True to her time, Moore's character sacrifices herself for heroic damage control. Stand by your man, even when he's moving farther and farther away. Quaid, despite a generally rigid and two-dimensional performance, accurately protrays--albeit superficially--the trauma the supposedly 'normal' family man of 1958 must have felt when confronted with his desires for other men. Quaid's character walks all the stages, first denial, then shame, then helplessness and finally, a determination to 'beat this thing that's destroying my family.' The scenes of Frank and Cathy in a psychologist office seem forced and cliched, but Quaid's confused confession before his wife contains real anguish. It is Quaid's only breakthrough from an otherwise restrained performance.
Moore's character, on the other hand, deepens as the film goes on. Unable to find the solution to her problem--what's June Cleaver supposed to do when she catches Ward macking with another guy--she does the only thing she knows: cover things from the outside world and hope for the best. I imagine that in 1958 Hartford there were precious few known precedents for the likes of Cathy's situation, much less self-help books about closeted husbands. Determined to keep domestic perfection at all costs, Cathleen ends up defending a facade. A facade the eventually devours her. One of Moore's many poignant scenes is when she comes unglued before her 'friend,' Eleanor. More gossip-witch than friend, Eleanor sees evidence of physical abuse on Cathy, who in turn attempts to deny it, but instead breaks down. Yet, she still defends her husband. 'He didn't mean to do it,' knowing full well what demon tortures her husband. Both Frank and Cathy symbolize the crushing burden of false perfection that the seemingly flawless America of the 1950's placed on all our parents.
The film's only other bright light is Dennis Haybert's performance as the Whittaker's gardener, Raymond Deagan. With his quiet strength and unassuming air, he provides a refuge for Cathy. He is someone to whom she can show her feelings of disintegration and confusion. Haynes plays his cards best with the relationship between Cathy and Raymond. From their first brusque encounter to its painful resolution, their relationship more than anything portrays the subtleness of our country's profound hang-up with race.
Like many a white woman of her time, Cathy was shocked at finding a 'negro' snooping around her bourgeois castle grounds. Her initial hostility is cooled somewhat when she learns that Raymond is their new gardener. Slowly though, she opens up to him in her despair. Rather escapes to him, as she subsconsciously senses that he might understand her predicament being himself an outcast in white, middle-class America.
The film's most incisive social commentary comes from the scenes between Moore and Haybert's characters. Cathy feels a definite attraction to Raymond, but to indulge her feelings would have been as scandolous to her tea-cup society as her husband's secret. So instead, she pretends her feelings are the outgrowth of her kind heart towards all the dispossesed. Always conscious of her social image, Cathy makes all the correct moves for the caring middle-class woman of liberal convictions. She express sympathy for the 'negro cause' at cocktail parties, pledges support for the NAACP and even dares to visit the 'other Hartford' with Raymond. Yet, what gives Far From Heaven some depth and complexity, is when Cathy is forced to decide where her motivations lie. Is she is just the noble angel of every social cause or like her husband, is she experiencing a love unacceptable to her society?
The message of this film is to be found in just how Frank and Cathy answer this question. Two people trapped in a society which won't let them be who they are, one that forces them into prescribed roles thought to be beneficial for all. While Frank eventually finds an answer, Cathy titters on the edge of tragic indecision. Too little, too late. But could she have done anything else? Ditch the family and suffer the social ostracization. Yes, she could have. Hester Prynne did it, why couldn't she? Yet, Haynes' refusal to give a clean and noble answer shows a more realistic picture of just how powerful societal pressures can be.
While parts of the film often seem like snippets of a color documentary on American Racism, as a whole, the film does make an impact. Technically speaking, the whole theme of color resonates throughout the film. The constant barrage of autumnal colors serves to highlight Cathy's (and American society's) struggle to see beyond the color of things and listen to her heart rather than to her eyes. Perhaps the fall imagery was also meant to underscore the melancholy constricts of this society, soon to fall in the blizzards of the following decade.
All in all, Far From Heaven is an important film. It provides a sharp glimpse into a society best left to the past. A society which enslaved its children with unrealistic expectations and mind-numbing conformity. A society, to quote Raymond Deagan's words, that never really learned to 'look past the surface of things.'
Description of Far From Heaven
Cathy and Frank Whitaker, a seemingly perfect fifties' couple face the breakdown of their marriage because of conflicting desires.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 24-AUG-2004
Media Type: DVD
This uniquely beautiful film--from one of the smartest and most idiosyncratic of contemporary directors, Todd Haynes (Safe, Velvet Goldmine)--takes the lush 1950s visual style of so-called women's pictures (particularly those of Douglas Sirk, director of Imitation of Life and Magnificent Obsession) to tell a story that mixes both sexual and racial prejudice. Julianne Moore, an amazing fusion of vulnerability and will power, plays a housewife whose husband (Dennis Quaid) has a secret gay life. When she finds solace in the company of a black gardener (Dennis Haysbert), rumors and peer pressure destroy any chance she has at happiness. It's astonishing how a movie with such a stylized veneer can be so emotionally compelling; the cast and filmmakers have such an impeccable command of the look and feel of the genre that every moment is simultaneously artificial and deeply felt. Far from Heaven is ingenious and completely engrossing. --Bret Fetzer
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