Far From Heaven (DVD)

Remember all the TV shows and movies that came out of the US in the late 1950's? Back then, there were many about "perfect" families, and even some about not-so perfect families. But for some reason, when one of those families were in the latter category, they were always portrayed as lovably funny, cutely bumbling or adorably confused - all making silly mistakes that got them into laughable situations. Showing a family with the type of real-life problems and dilemmas that couldn't be solved with a nice cup of tea or a simple withering look from a parent followed by a sincere apology from the child and then hugs all around, just wasn't done. In Todd Haynes' ...  Read the complete review

Below the lovely autumnal colours of the trees surrounding her home, the incredibly well coutured and made-up figure of Cathy Whitaker lives a seemingly perfect life. Her husband Frank is high up and busy in the world of a company making and selling those new television set things (this is the 1950s, of course). Her daughter is a young dancer and has the knack of saying a perfectly decent compliment to her Mummy at the right time. And her son, well, he's just a tiny bit late in helping the home help (with her one, immaculate dress uniform) in with the shopping, but you can't have everything. Seemingly perfect, yes, but it must be said also busy. ...  Read the complete review

As soon as this movie begins, you know that you’re in for a quality viewing experience. Visually, for sure. It starts off in a very cinematic, beautiful way – the use of something very reminiscent of 50s Technicolor (indeed it may even use that, if it’s possible nowadays) and also the way it is filmed, instantly threw me into that “classic” cinema mode. All of which perfectly conjures up the period when “Far from Heaven” is in fact set. The scenes, fashions, and the almost melodramatic execution also play their part in these tale from the suburbs of post war Connecticut. “Far from Heaven” is a ...  Read the complete review

Far From Heaven is a period film, but not in the usual sense. Not only is the setting of the film the 1950s in suburban America, but the very style the film is that of a 1950s melodrama of the sort often associated with Douglas Sirk. The challenge for director Todd Haynes was to make a film that remained compelling for modern audiences despite this. The film starts in autumn in Connecticut where we are introduced to Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore), the perfect suburban housewife with the perfect family of two kids (one of each) and husband Frank (Dennis Quaid). This is the 1950s and Frank is firmly in the role of breadwinner while Cathy spends her days ...  Read the complete review

To me, Julianne Moore was always the actress who made ginger hair and freckles beautiful. Not having ginger hair myself, but having an abundance of freckles, I loved it when her looks were praised. It could have been for this reason, then, that I never took her seriously as an actress. She was the wannabe that took the dud roles - Lila Crane in the disastrous remake of Hitchcock's Psycho, and Clarice Starling in Hannibal - a role that Jodie Foster, rightly, was loath to take up again. Far From Heaven changed all that. The only reason I went to see it, firstly, was that the Oscar race was on, and I wanted to watch all the leading actor and actresses ...  Read the complete review