Far From Heaven (2002) 7/10

Starring : Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis
Director : Todd Haynes
Running Time : 107 mins

Fifties housewife Cathy Whitaker (Moore) finds her life thrown into disarray when she catches her husband Frank (Quaid) in his office kissing a man! As she struggles to come to terms with this, she begins a friendship with Raymond Deagan (Haysbert), a black man who works as a gardener. Cathy and Frank try to save their marriage by taking trips together and by Frank going to therapy, but Frank’s homosexuality and Cathy’s growing love for Raymond seem to get in the way of any hope for their marriage.

It’s funny that the reaction to the possibility that Cathy is seeing a black man seems worse than Frank being gay. Less than sixty years later, neither of these issues is really that big a deal, but the writers give us a view of mid-century American society that you wouldn’t often see portrayed on screen (at least not before Mad Men). This is melodrama through and through, with some strong performances from Moore and Quaid, and fans of this kind of drama will find little to fault here, but this is at times a little too hammy.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Hours