Review

Review Date: 17-November-02
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Jubilation!

Far From Heaven (2002)

Have you ever gone to see a classic old movie on the big screen? If not, let me prepare you for a little shock: at some dramatic point during the film, people are going to laugh. Yup, it happens every time. When Ilsa throws her head on Rick's shoulder and begs him to think for both of them, two people will snicker in the front row; when Paul tells Holly Golightly that people do belong to each other because that's the only chance they've got, a group will titter behind you. Why? Because in this super hip, highly psychoanalyzed world, the raw passions of relative innocents seem both ridiculous and embarrassing. While the cinematic conceit of our grandparents' age was that normally stifled or unrecognized emotions will emerge in unforeseen eruptions, ours is the belief that we are all jaded and unfazed by every compulsion, sensation, and experience known to man by the time we reach our teens.

I suppose it's a compliment, then, that I heard several such nervous guffaws during "Far From Heaven," a new movie written and directed by 41-year-old Todd Haynes. With this homage to the glossy melodramas of the 1950s, Haynes has clearly tapped into the repressive ambiance of another era with a precision that denotes real fascination instead of the more common (and more easily rendered) satire. "Far From Heaven" is an absolutely beautiful movie, drenched in the vivid colors of autumn in Connecticut and made almost tangible in the rich wardrobes of affluent suburban housewives. Its depiction of the ideal 1950s family --- successful Father, pretty Mother, pigtailed Daughter, and cute Son who actually says "aw, gee" --- is not so much derogatory as wistful; the external order and beauty of this world achieves depth from the fact that it's an impossible fiction.

"Far From Heaven" tells the story of Cathy and Frank Whitaker (Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid), an admired, picture-perfect couple whose idealized life starts to fall apart when Frank becomes unable to control his "troubles" (the term he uses to denote a stifled homosexuality). Cathy, a kind soul who is thoroughly versed in the art of standing by her man, supports Frank as he makes a sincere effort to beat the "disease," but the spell of their existence has been broken. Too delicate to discuss this socially unacceptable matter with her best friend Eleanor (Patricia Clarkson), Cathy finds support from an unexpected and equally unacceptable source, her gardener Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), who is black. Thus, irrevocably separated but united in confusion, Cathy and Frank pursue their forbidden passions (she chastely and he adulterously) until their inevitable social downfall and the end of their marriage, which brings differing degrees of fulfillment to each.

The combination of nostalgia and overt social/psychological crisis makes for good melodrama, but it also produces a truly moving tale. Haynes' dazzling, deliberate, and meticulous staging creates an utterly absorbing world of which the narrow ideals, expectations, and prejudices are no less a part than the maidservants, fedoras, and cocktail parties. Once this world takes you over, the now dated views on homosexuality and race with which the Whitakers wrestle don't feel so much laughable or quaint as frustrating and painfully restrictive. Despite the fact that Cathy is a woman who speaks almost exclusively in banalities and refuses to rock the boat, her blind groping for something of meaning becomes palpable and touching; because she is so defined by her setting, we can appreciate that what lies beyond the limits of her little circle is not just seductive, but also inconceivable and frightening. (Moore, fabulous as always, also gives Cathy weight simply by the longing in her eyes.) Far from detracting from the impact of the characters' emotions, the stylized '50s setting highlights just how hard it is for them not only to reach for happiness, but even to understand what it means.

The predominant strength of "Far From Heaven" is its gorgeous staging of a lost fantasy era, and this simply cannot be compared to any reality, particularly our own. Still, I couldn't help thinking that the people who laughed during the screening were evincing the very same repressiveness depicted in the film. If a society chooses to ignore or muffle its inevitable passions, fears, and emotions, this is about the same thing as our modern pretense of having seen, experienced, and become blasé about them --- in the end, it's just an attempt to diminish their power and feel like we are in control of ourselves and each other. Like all good works of art, Haynes' film does not so much mirror real life as fashion a rendition of it that enables us to take a better look at our deeper selves.

Copyright © 2002 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.