Set the in the picturesque 1950’s Connecticut suburbs, Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven earnestly channels Douglas Sirk-style melodrama to interrogate issues of race, gender, and sexuality. The epitome of the post-war housewife Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore, in an Academy-Award nominated performance) develops feelings for her black gardener (Dennis Haysbert) while discovering her businessman husband (Dennis Quaid) is likely homosexual. Dreamy and visceral, florid and focused, this masterful homage highlights the taboos and hypocrisies at the heart of American life in a way no movie of the period could’ve done. The first of Haynes’ many collaborations with cinematographer Ed Lachman, this film did however mark the final score of Elmer Bernstein.
“The film’s three leads are extraordinary, but what Moore does with her role is so beyond the parameters of what we call great acting that it nearly defies categorization.” – Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times
“A movie for hardcore film geeks and regular folk alike, a stunning, and stunningly improbable, fusion of postmodern pastiche and old-school Hollywood melodrama. It’s both a marvelous technical accomplishment and a tragic love story that sweeps you off your feet.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
