bnorthup
02-17-2003, 02:18 AM
Far From Heaven (R)
At the Myrna Loy
**** Four stars
Learning how to duck and cover
By Brent Northup
The 1950s is often characterized as a quiet decade where the only social movement was the gyrating hips of Elvis. But inside that sleepy we-like-Ike decade were the seeds of unrest that would erupt 10 years later into explosions on all fronts as Gays raised their fists, blacks marched on Washington, women burned their bras – while soldiers died in Vietnam.
“Far From Heaven” is a film which looks beneath the surface of the ’50s to uncover the latent tensions. Appropriately, the style of the film is just like the decade – a deceptively quiet tale where kids are polite to their parents and neatly painted white picket fences are everywhere.
The film opens with the perfect American family, the Whitakers, being celebrated in a local paper. Dad, Frank, is a successful sales executive. Mom, Cathy, runs the perfect home, with help from her black maid. The kids are cute and well behaved. Hartford seems content.
But, slowly, the seeds of the sixties emerge. First, dad falls in love with another man. Next, mom begins to have feelings for a black gardener. And, as societal pressure mounts to embarrass and destroy her, mom shucks her petticoats and tries to assume control of her life – a good decade ahead of time. But, right in keeping with the calendar, she stops short of happiness.
This tragic tale unfolds at the pace of a slow dance, barely rippling the tea in Hartford tea cups.
“Far From Heaven” is aptly titled because Connecticut ends up being a place where good people are hurt and forced to take trains to somewhere else – somewhere closer to heaven. But, as one character says, it’s not apt to be much better in Baltimore.
Writer/director Todd Haynes understands that less is more, and he directs with an understated touch. In the age of over-the-top blockbuster films, a subtle film like this plays like a breath of a cool Montana winter air.
Julianne Moore is so good as Cathy, she seems transformed. In this “career year” Moore has been nominated twice - both as Best Actress in this role, and as Best Supporting Actress in “The Hours.” Dennis Quaid is fine, too, as the father, but the second career performance is by Dennis Haysbert as the gardener.
Technical nominations for Best Score, Best Cinematography and Best Original Screenplay are all richly deserved.
The power of “Far From Heaven” lies in its ability to reveal a decade – 50 years later – more clearly than those of us living through it could see it at the time. I had a gay friend named Jim in 1958, a fact I was surprised to learn at a class reunion 41 years later in 1999. And I thought I knew him well!
I was as oblivious to Jim’s pain as I was to the underlying currents of racism and sexism of the era. When the ’60s exploded, I was stunned at the level of the outrage. Only in retrospect, could I see why.
“Far From Heaven” provides us with a chance to understand our past through a helpful long-term lens. The value of such a journey is, undeniably, to encourage us to be more aware now – than we were then – to undercurrents of pain and suffering that lie beneath the surface of our town. Hopefully, it won’t take 50 years us to see ourselves and our shortcomings more clearly.
END
At the Myrna Loy
**** Four stars
Learning how to duck and cover
By Brent Northup
The 1950s is often characterized as a quiet decade where the only social movement was the gyrating hips of Elvis. But inside that sleepy we-like-Ike decade were the seeds of unrest that would erupt 10 years later into explosions on all fronts as Gays raised their fists, blacks marched on Washington, women burned their bras – while soldiers died in Vietnam.
“Far From Heaven” is a film which looks beneath the surface of the ’50s to uncover the latent tensions. Appropriately, the style of the film is just like the decade – a deceptively quiet tale where kids are polite to their parents and neatly painted white picket fences are everywhere.
The film opens with the perfect American family, the Whitakers, being celebrated in a local paper. Dad, Frank, is a successful sales executive. Mom, Cathy, runs the perfect home, with help from her black maid. The kids are cute and well behaved. Hartford seems content.
But, slowly, the seeds of the sixties emerge. First, dad falls in love with another man. Next, mom begins to have feelings for a black gardener. And, as societal pressure mounts to embarrass and destroy her, mom shucks her petticoats and tries to assume control of her life – a good decade ahead of time. But, right in keeping with the calendar, she stops short of happiness.
This tragic tale unfolds at the pace of a slow dance, barely rippling the tea in Hartford tea cups.
“Far From Heaven” is aptly titled because Connecticut ends up being a place where good people are hurt and forced to take trains to somewhere else – somewhere closer to heaven. But, as one character says, it’s not apt to be much better in Baltimore.
Writer/director Todd Haynes understands that less is more, and he directs with an understated touch. In the age of over-the-top blockbuster films, a subtle film like this plays like a breath of a cool Montana winter air.
Julianne Moore is so good as Cathy, she seems transformed. In this “career year” Moore has been nominated twice - both as Best Actress in this role, and as Best Supporting Actress in “The Hours.” Dennis Quaid is fine, too, as the father, but the second career performance is by Dennis Haysbert as the gardener.
Technical nominations for Best Score, Best Cinematography and Best Original Screenplay are all richly deserved.
The power of “Far From Heaven” lies in its ability to reveal a decade – 50 years later – more clearly than those of us living through it could see it at the time. I had a gay friend named Jim in 1958, a fact I was surprised to learn at a class reunion 41 years later in 1999. And I thought I knew him well!
I was as oblivious to Jim’s pain as I was to the underlying currents of racism and sexism of the era. When the ’60s exploded, I was stunned at the level of the outrage. Only in retrospect, could I see why.
“Far From Heaven” provides us with a chance to understand our past through a helpful long-term lens. The value of such a journey is, undeniably, to encourage us to be more aware now – than we were then – to undercurrents of pain and suffering that lie beneath the surface of our town. Hopefully, it won’t take 50 years us to see ourselves and our shortcomings more clearly.
END