Barnes & Noble

The most ambitious project yet from indie director Todd Haynes (Safe, Velvet Goldmine), Far from Heaven is a meticulous homage to the ‘50s melodramas of Douglas Sirk -- right down to the swelling Elmer Bernstein score and the obsessive attention to costume and décor. Borrowing elements both from Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows and Imitation of Life, it tells the story of an upper-middle-class Connecticut housewife (Julianne Moore) whose picture-perfect world collapses when she discovers that her husband (Dennis Quaid) is gay. Simultaneously, she finds herself ostracized by her conservative suburban community for befriending a black gardener (Dennis Haysbert). Moore is terrific as she movingly portrays a woman desperately trying to live up to the ‘50s ideal of devoted wife, yet failing due to circumstances out of her control. Encased in padded, corseted period garb and surrounded by the sterile elegance of her midcentury-modern dream house, she seems embalmed in her own life. Cineastes will swoon over Haynes’s absolutely flawless re-creation of the Sirkian world -- it’s so flawless, in fact, that the film occasionally feels a bit airless and academic (unlike Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s own brilliant, scathing Sirk homage, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul). But Moore’s performance, and to a lesser extent Quaid’s, keep the film alive. Far from Heaven offers the same pleasures that the original melodramas do, by inviting the audience to indulge in big, sweeping emotions in the context of a gorgeously executed movie. By approaching the so-called "Woman’s Weepy" with respect and complete lack of irony, Haynes succeeds in resuscitating a maligned but worthy genre. Kryssa Schemmerling

All Movie Guide

Maverick director Todd Haynes embraces the look and feel of classic Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s in this period drama. Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) and her husband Frank (Dennis Quaid) are a seemingly perfect couple; living in a handsome suburban neighborhood in Hartford, CT in 1957, Cathy and Frank have a beautiful home and two happy, healthy children, while Frank pursues a successful career in sales and Cathy cares for the home. But Cathy has begun to sense something isn't quite right in her marriage, as Frank begins working late, spending less time with her, and seems cold and distant. One day, Cathy visits Frank's work and discovers something she never expected -- her husband is kissing a man. At Cathy's urging, Frank undergoes psychotherapy, but as she tries to keep up a brave face, the emotional trauma takes a great toll on her, and she finds there are very few people she can talk with. Cathy strikes up a friendship with Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), an African-American gardener who works for the Whitakers, and as she discovers how intelligent and compassionate Raymond is, she finds herself drawn to him. However, Hartford is in many ways still a small town, and when Mona (Celia Weston) sees Cathy and Raymond alone together, it sets off a wave of vicious gossip that threatens to make the Whitakers' many secrets public knowledge. Far From Heaven premiered at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, where Julianne Moore's performance won the prize for Best Actress. Mark Deming

Entertainment Weekly

Far From Heaven is a dazzling conceptual feat, but more than that, it's a work of enthralling drama. Owen Gleiberman

Village Voice

Without resorting to camp or parody, Haynes (like Sirk, but differently) has transformed the rhetoric of Hollywood melodrama into something provocative, rich, and strange. J. Hoberman

New York Times

It rediscovers the aching, desiring humanity in a genre -- and a period -- too often subjected to easy parody or ironic appropriation. In a word, it's divine. A.O. Scott

Los Angeles Times

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

Product Details

• UPC: 025192245626
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français, Español
• Subtitles: Français, Español
• Time: 1:48:00
• Sales Rank: 2,972

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