Far
From Heaven
(Focus) Rated PG-13
Release date: November 8, 2002
|
|
Starring: Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid,
Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Written
by: Todd Haynes
|
|
Traditions
are found and flounder in Todd Haynes’ big buzz film,
Far From Heaven. The much-anticipated recreation of a Douglas
Sirk-style film, Far From Heaven tells the tale
of a happily-married woman who turns out not to be so happily
married. The reasons for the marital problems are trumped, publicly, by her
willingness to build a friendship with a Negro in this 1950s
era film.
Far From
Heaven is probably the most discussable popular film here
at the festival and I don’t have the time or energy to do
it justice right now. But
I will… in time. Haynes and his team use a very special visual
palette for the film and while the movie sticks to 50s conventions
for two acts, it starts breaking some rules in the third act,
after the unheard of use of the word “fuck.”
And so the question… is the film “just” a classic Sirk-like
melodrama or is Haynes frying bigger fish?
We’ll get into more of it later… promise.
|
