neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Far From Heaven
	Todd Haynes Julianne Moore, Denns Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson 2002		From the look and sound of "Far From Heaven," writer/director Todd Haynes ("Velvet Goldmine," "Safe") is a big admirer of the "women's pictures" or "message movies" that filmmaker Douglas Sirk contrived during the 1950s. Haynes uses vibrant Technicolor cinematography, lush string arrangements and, in the credits, a script-written font to echo Sirk's work. But "Far From Heaven" pays further homage to its progenitor and delves deeper into the hidden tragedies of an outwardly wholesome era with finely-wrought melodrama that goes, in overt ways, where Sirk and his '50s peers couldn't go, regarding sexual and racial issues. In Haynes' post-modern take, the perfect suburban wife, given warmth, earnestness and June Cleaver-gleam by actress Julianne Moore, discovers that her husband, a well-respected ad man played with repressed anger and ache by Dennis Quaid, is hiding debilitating secrets that may destroy their marriage. Complicating the situation, Moore's character feels an attraction to the family's proud, dignified black gardener (Dennis Haysbert). "Far From Heaven" is both skillful artifice and fervent art.