Synopsis: In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife faces a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in the outside world.

Now for the Zone's Eye View:

By Scott Maravilla

Director: Todd Haynes

Starring: Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis

Far from Heaven is Will & Grace in the 1950s. But instead of living a trendy life as roommates in Manhattan, Will and Grace are married living in suburban Hartford, Connecticut as an extremely wealthy model couple, the envy of the town's folk and gracing the pages of the society newspaper. However, Will is still a homosexual and in the 1950s he is fighting back a mental illness subject to counseling and electro-shock aversion therapy. Will turns to alcoholism as a means to escape the dilemmas posed by his not being able to come out of the closet. Grace plays the dutiful wife trying to stand by her man, but is coming apart at the seams. The 1950s are not a kind time to Will and Grace. They have to wait nearly half a century before Will can be openly gay and Grace his best pal.

Far from Heaven would lend us to believe that it is a film about the repression of homosexuals, but that would be a disservice to this fine work by writer/ director Todd Haynes. The film is a deconstructionist look at America of the 1950s that we so idealize from black and white reruns of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver which I would like to remind you are television shows, not documentaries. As Haynes points out to us so eloquently, the world we believe to be the 1950s is a fantasy. The Eisenhower administration was not a time of bliss but of repressed social injustices that came to a head the following decade. And homosexuality, although a lightning rod to focus the energies of this film, is not at its epicenter, racism is. 

Hopefully the third time will be the charm for the Best Actress Oscar for Julianne Moore (Boogie Nights and The End of the Affair), she is my deserved choice for the award but Nicole Kidman remains my political choice. Julianne Moore has a career performance here as Katherine Whitaker, and for those of you who have watched her since her indy days in films like Safe will know that means something. She portrays a broken hearted and kind woman who attempts to move beyond the social conventions to connect with another human being here her gardener Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), an African American. Now, many of the reviews you may have read about this film thus far say that they have a love affair. Not true, their relationship is purely platonic and in the end they do love each other, but that is the true love of two human beings meant for each other, not passion. Her husband Frank Whitaker's (Dennis Quaid) homosexuality is based on lust in stark contrast to her love for Raymond. His attraction to men is portrayed as purely sexual, and his lack of affection for his wife is also displayed in a sexual manner. The Whitakers crumbling marriage is about sex, the relationship between Katherine and Raymond is about love.

The social injustices of the day come into play, and Katherine's and Raymond's friendship is severed by both sides. Raymond's fellow African American's throw bricks through his windows because he has been seen with a white woman, and the local community shuns Katherine as a pariah after a local gossip sees her entering a restaurant with Raymond. In contrast, there is some sympathy by her friend for Frank's homosexuality because it is a sickness after all as they believe. There is even an underground world where Frank can be openly homosexual and take a lover. Alas, there is no such world for Raymond and Katherine. The 1950s are very unforgiving. In the end, Todd Haynes has brought us a brilliant film with the simple message that we should be allowed to be free to be who we are and love who we want. 

Dennis Quaid, an actor who I haven't really forgiven for declining to appear with then-wife P.J. Soles (Private Benjamin, Stripes) in Halloween because his agent thought that the part would hurt his career, deserves special mention for the excellent job he does of portraying a repressed homosexual. His character honestly wants to do all he can to go straight in a matter of speaking, but cannot help but be attracted to men. His world begins to crumble as he deals with this epiphany brought on from a chance encounter with a back alley hidden gay bar.

In a clever twist, Haynes shot the film to look like it was from that period. The credits and scenery all look like a 1950s feature film. The score was also composed in a 1950s style. The use of cinematography and music further drive home the deconstructionist approach of the film. I give Far from Heaven a well deserved 10, and it is one of my top 5 films of 2002.