2003 Academy Award Nomination: Best cinematography
2003 Academy Award Nomination: Best original score
2003 Academy Award Nomination: Best actress in a leading role

by Frank Wilkins
We must be living in a great time when a movie made after the turn of the 21st century can better capture the aura and presence of the 1950s than could a movie that was actually made in the ‘50s. Avocado green walls, aqua blue cars and harvest gold household accents have never looked as good as they do in Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven. But Haynes not only captures the look of the homes, clothes and furnishings of the period, he also mimics the film making style. Over-dramatized dialogue delivery, a sweeping Elmer Bernstein score and the Technicolor saturation of hues all work in fascinating fashion as we are thrown back into a presumably innocent era of American bliss.

But not all is as it seems on the surface. Behind the mask of the innocence of the ‘50s lies a festering boil that promises to rock Haynes’ little picture perfect creation. Homosexuality and racism, two subjects that rarely, if ever, were addressed in movies of the time, are presented in an in-your-face manner that provides no answers, but certainly raises much thought and discussion.

Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) is a suburban housewife in 1957 Hartford Connecticut. She lives the life of suburban paradise with a handsome husband, Frank (Dennis Quaid), two healthy adorable children, and a busy schedule of social gatherings and charitable events. She cooks dinner, buys the groceries, and takes pride in her household. At about the same time that I settled in and stopped gawking at the refreshing period feel of the movie, I began to notice that Cathy’s serene little world was about to unravel.

We learn that Frank’s drinking is getting more habitual as Cathy must leave one of her perfectly hosted little hen parties to drive Frank home from a visit in the local drunk-tank. This is the least of Cathy’s problems as we learn of Frank’s homosexual preferences during a disturbingly honest scene. Typical to her sympathetic and caring character, Cathy accompanies Frank on a visit to a psychiatrist, who hopes to “therapy” the gayness out of him. They both realize that this disclosure to their circle of friends would seriously damage their status in society.

The revelation of Frank’s homosexuality seems to enlighten Cathy somewhat and causes her to begin to scrutinize their existence from outside of her little clique of friends. She turns to an unlikely source for moral support. Her widower gardener Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), has an unfamiliar ability to listen to her and provide a genuine kindness that is missing from her life. The fact that she befriends Raymond, an African-American, and that this is a middle class suburb in Connecticut in the 1950s will play out to do far more damage to her family status than the fact that her husband is gay. Homosexuality can be hidden or “cured” but running around with blacks is unacceptable.

Far From Heaven is a searing parody of the seemingly innocent and pristine period of 1950s America. Through a seamless story of love, hatred and artificial sincerity, we learn what movies and television programs of the ‘50s were never able to truly reveal - that beneath the clean, blameless exteriors of the suburban family was a society riddled with the atrocities of a collective mindset.

Frank Wilkins