The visually stunning opening to Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven sets the tone for a wonderfully atmospheric 1950s nostalgia-fest despite the presence of disturbingly Neighbours-like credits. Unfortunately, vital though it may be, the film’s plot does not quite live up to its sublime cinematography.
American Life
In suburban Connecticut in 1957, Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) spends her days playing cards with friends and planning parties to impress her husband’s business associates. Although this appears a particularly shallow existence, Cathy seems contented choosing dinner services (who wouldn’t get excited about a table setting with a blue trim?) and nagging her freakishly wholesome children.
However, in possibly one of the nest cinematic examples of a person’s mood being reflected in their surroundings, as the trees of New England shed their leaves and people’s clothing becomes more sombre, the story darkens and cracks begin to appear in Cathy’s fragile happiness. Her husband Frank (Dennis Quaid giving very possibly his best performance ever) fails to return home from work one evening and a telephone call summons Cathy to bail him out of jail.
At this point, the plot begins to veer from telling a poignant and interesting tale of the characters’ lives to resorting to cliché and overzealous sentimentality to capture the audience’s imaginations. It turns out that, instead of working late, Frank has been frequenting gay clubs and, after Cathy walks in on one particular incident, he agrees to undergo the highly plausible sounding ‘heterosexual conversion’ procedure. The strain of this ‘therapy’ turns him to drink and, eventually, to domestic violence, which in turn causes Cathy to seek comfort in the arms of black gardener Raymond (Dennis Haysbert) much to the consternation of society as a whole.
Family Breakdown
Cathy and Frank’s marriage could not possibly survive all of these traumas and, to a certain extent, neither could the legitimacy of the film. In attempting to explore so many of the taboos of the period, Far From Heaven is unable to tackle any of them in depth. Despite it being set in small town American in the 1950s, it would appear that no one is particularly bothered when Frank decides to leave his family and move in with his younger, male lover.
On the other hand, the idea of a white woman and a black man forming a relationship provokes a violent reaction from both communities despite the fact that the relationship in question is negligible and rather lacking in definition. Despite excellent performances from both Moore and Haysbert, it is difficult to believe that their characters would form such a close bond so quickly based on the few exchanges that occur between them.
Far From Heaven is an eminently watchable film, it is beautifully shot and the performances of the actors are, without exception, of the highest calibre.
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