Far From Heaven (2002)
Note: Spoilers. Don't read anything
about this film until you see it. Wow. Go see it as
soon as you possibly can.
Once you think about it, Todd Haynes
is not a stranger to period pieces. His films "Poison,"
and "Velvet Goldmine" all have period details as part
of their ambience. But his work here is quite possibly
the most wondrous. The look of this film is simply
breath-taking. The gorgeous autumnal colors that abound
here swirl like the leaves on the ground of his 50's
Connecticut settings. Lush, brooding and warm, the
film's look is amazing.
And the period detail is simply
perfection. This film looks exactly like a "Look"
Magazine from October of 1957 come to life. The automobiles,
the houses, the decor, the street scenes, the props,
the costumes, from the most minute detail to the most
important, are simply flawless. Watching this film
is easy because our eyes literally drink in the delightful
concoction that Haynes and his behind-the-scenes crew
have created.
But this is just the exterior of
the film here. This is simply the foundation that
Haynes lays. On top of it and inside of it is an amazing
and subtle script, acting that is always pitch-perfect,
and an emotional resonance that is simply stunning.
This film is, simply put, one of the very best you
will ever see.
Cinemaphiles will immediately notice
that what Haynes is doing here is emulating Douglas
Sirk. And he does it with an ostentatious flair that
somehow evokes warmth rather than simply becoming
homage or even ironic style. To say this film is Sirkian
is an understatement, but Haynes is not simply imitating
nor is he simply paying homage. This film is not camp
nor is it a celebration of camp. Haynes film is rooted
in Sirk because to put his story and characters into
context, he must establish this sort of warm yet austere
world. In as much as the film is like looking at a
magazine layout created by Sirk in 1958, Haynes story
is also Sirkian in that it focuses on a female character
caught up in an overtly dramatic situation while still
maintaining her femininity, her dignity and the polite
facade that she shows the outside world.
Haynes characters and stories are
about nothing less than facade because both the racial
and the sexual themes that evolve here are about the
beginning of the destruction of facade. In this 1950's
"Leave It to Beaver," "Life Magazine" world that Haynes
creates, facade is existence. When the cracks in life,
the small tears in the facade, begin, Julianne Moore's
character finds herself alone and adrift. Her whole
world crumbles because the facade of absurdist racism
and unrealistic sexual mores are about to be exposed.
Haynes tells this story masterfully
and then creates the perfect world to reflect his
ideas and his themes. It is exactly what filmmaking
is all about. For as much he has spent much of his
career as an outsider, a cultist and a independent,
with "Far From Heaven," Haynes elevates his stature
to that of master. This film puts him in the upper
echelon of artists working in film today. He proves
himself more than worthy of any praise of accolades
that may be heaped upon him.
Moore is simply awesome as the lead.
Imagine, and it will be easy to do so after you see
her performance, TV's "Cheers'" Diane Chambers' mother
living a staid and respectable, upper- middle class
life in Connecticut in 1957 and you'll see the very
basic notion of what Moore does here. But her performance
is so layered, so resonant, so masterful that she
easily emulates exactly what Haynes does behind the
camera. God, it is so amazing to just view this film.
It is awe- inspiring. And Moore's work is, hands-down,
the best of her career.
Those around Moore do equally gratifying
and praise-worthy work. Dennis Quaid is a solid actor,
no doubt, but we haven't seen him in a role as challenging
and unique as this one in quite a while and it confirms
his stature as an underrated actor worthy of much
more important film roles. Like Moore, he is pitch-perfect
here.
Dennis Haysbert, as Moore's black
gardener who becomes so much more to her, creates
a character that honors every black actor who worked
in the 50's in mainstream cinema. His work here is
not a direct reflection of those actors, but rather,
like Haynes, in creating a unique and refreshing cinematic
experiencing, he too builds upon the foundation of
those who have come before. As romantic as Sidney
Poitier, as dignified as Paul Robeson, as charming
as Ossie Davis, Haysbert is simply wonderful here.
And then there's those secondary
characters who do work here that is as integral and
as important to the film as the leads. Patricia Clarkson
and Celia Weston, two of my favorite (for lack of
a better term) character actresses, do amazing work
here. Weston is, granted, a tertiary character, but
she reminds us so subtly and perfectly of just exactly
what it was that the Civil Rights Movement was really
all about. Haynes world here is not some overtly dramatic
and inspiring story of someone challenging this racial
boundaries of the pre-60's age. Rather, his film reflects
a more honest and often more brutal racism, that which
run rampant in polite society. "The Long Walk Home"
may have been, up until this movie, the most important
look at a true reflection of how things changed racially
in middle-class, suburban, white society when the
Civil Right Movement began. This film goes even deeper
and takes us to that moment just before everything
began to change. Haynes isn't showing us HOW things
changed, instead he is showing us WHY they simply
had to change. And everyone in the film, down to the
most minute of characters, help to establish just
exactly what it is he is talking about here. Weston
is a minor player in this, and Clarkson a tad bit
more important, but they both perfectly encapsulates
the subtle white bigotry of 50's white "polite society."
In doing this, we gain an even more delicate, complex
and intricate notion of just what it was like to exist
in such a time, and how much we, as a society, have
had to fight to overcome the absurdity of racism.
A lesser theme here is, of course,
the evolution of the gay rights movement. Now, this
film only serves to show just how far into the dark
ages of sexual freedom we really were at this time.
What Quaid's character undergoes in the film is as
important to what Haynes is discussing her as the
more prevalent storyline but it is treated as subtext.
It's amazing how perfectly Haynes intertwines these
two storylines while also discussing both issues yet
this one remains only a notion compared to the primary
theme at work here. Like the best of subplots, it
underscores the idea of the film while helping to
propel the main story and theme at the same time.
"Far From Heaven" will be praised
for a long time, and rightly so. It is one of the
most beautiful and poetic films I have seen in a long
time. And its cinematic lexicon, its homage that becomes
more than homage, its detailed look, its gorgeous
Art Direction, Set Decoration and Cinematography are
nothing short of astounding. This is a masterpiece.
That word gets thrown around a lot, especially by
me, but I truly mean it here. A masterpiece. A masterpiece
from one of America's most important young filmmakers.
This is a film to cherish and to share.
There was a time, not so long ago,
when we allowed perception and facade to rule us.
When we masked feelings, ideas, honest emotions and
a sense of what is obviously right behind polite society.
We evolved past this notions into a world that is
crass and vulgar and harsh and unforgiving. But I
am glad that, as a society, given the choice between
pretense and reality, we eventually chose reality.
No matter how brutal, grating and difficult that choice
was. This film reminds us of just how foolish, just
how absurd and just how cold the world was. This is
the world that white, middle- class, suburban people
came from. This is our history of racism. This film
isn't a reflection of the war, it's simply a look
at the beginning of the change. It's just a close-up
examination of that first, nearly microscopic, crack
in the facade.
Note:
Written by Haynes. The soundtrack,
which is also perfection, is by Elmer Bernstein.
Because their work is flawless,
I will mention them: Cinematography by Edward Lachman.
Production Designer is Mark Friedberg, Art Direction
by Peter Rogness. Set Decoration by Ellen Christiansen.
Costumes by Sandy Powell.
Produced by George Clooney, Steven
Soderbergh, and Christine Vachon among others.
A big hit at the Venice Film Festival.
Viewed in Austin on November 22nd,
the first day it played here in town.
