Far From Heaven review

With his last releases Velvet Goldmine, director Todd Haynes recreated the world of 70s glam rock. While the setting of the film was perfectly executed, the plot left something to be desired. Now he returns with another period piece: this time the comfortable white middle class world of Connecticut in the 1950s. It's the notable way in which Far From Heaven is filmed - Haynes painstakingly recreates the Technicolor effect so common at the time - that will grab the headlines, but even underneath the glossy exterior there is plenty to make this one of the stand-out films of the year.

Cathy Whitaker (Moore) has the perfect life. The successful husband Frank(Quaid), the devoted children, the beautiful house and popularity among the women and social elite of her New England town. But Frank has a guilty secret that society at the time very much frowned upon: he is a homosexual. One night Cathy accidentally stumbles across Frank in a compromising situation and has to face up to his sexuality. Part of her response is to become closer to the family's gardener Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), but again she has to face up to social issues, as Raymond is black. Once she is seen out and about in town with him the tongues being to wag. This is a drama that has plenty to recommend. Homophobia and racism were more often than not implicit and unsaid in the films of the 50s that Haynes borrows from: here he tackles them head on. This also allows him to examine the social mores of the time and it is clear that the 'perfect' America in the post-war years was a society based on fear. The culture of anti-communism of the McCarthy period clearly infiltrated society at all levels leading to heightened aggression against anything unknown (being gay, being black). The shallow cadre of those who formed 'society' was little more than an agglomeration of fragile and scared temperaments.

Moore captures this fragility from the opening scenes when she is pictured for the local paper. Although she is desperate to maintain that Frank's 'illness' can be cured, her attraction to Raymond leads her to discover the prejudices rife among her best friends. It's a wonderful performance that combines a persistence with maintaining the status quo while gradually realising that life may not be meant to be all that rosy.

As the tortured husband Quaid delivers a career-best performance. A renaissance man of American cinema in recent years, with mainstream hits including Frequency and The Rookie, he bravely plays with his golden boy image to deliver one of the year's most complex and riveting turns. Despite undergoing medical therapy to cure himself his homosexuality rears its head in a climactic scene when he and Cathy take a break in Miami.

A 50s film made with 21st century sensibilities then. It's an experiment that could easily have failed but thanks to a perfect combination of photography, direction, script and acting, Far From Heaven is one of the best films of the year. Highly recommended.