The rich visual texture, using glorious Technicolor, and a soaring emotional score lend what is essentially a thin story a kind of epic tension.
Comment
10/04/03
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
92
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:26
Fresh:24
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.6/10
Runtime: 89 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: In ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, Douglas Sirk's haunting suburban morality play, Jane Wyman plays Cary Scott, a wealthy middle-aged widow in love with a younger man considered by those around her to be... [More]
Starring: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Conrad Nagel
Director: Douglas Sirk
Reviews for All That Heaven Allows
Top CriticRomance novel in narrative this transcends its genre with visual depth and perceptive socio-cultural insights.
10/16/07
Top CriticBeneath the stunningly lovely visuals -- all expressionist colours, reflections, and frames-within-frames, used to produce a precise symbolism -- lies a kernel of terrifying despair
02/09/06
Top CriticOne of Sirk's finest films.
10/16/07
Top CriticWhile the stars deliver performances in Heaven that are graceful enough to carry the film, the rest of this love story just sort of, um, lies there.
08/01/01
Solid and sensible drama plainly had to give way to outright emotional bulldozing and a paving of easy clichés.
03/25/06
Top CriticNo review available.
08/20/04
A masterpiece (1955) by one of the most inventive and recondite directors ever to work in Hollywood, Douglas Sirk.
09/04/04
The enjoyability of All That Heaven Allows is hampered by the fact that there's no real plot here.
04/13/03
No review available.
12/16/02
After seeing Sirk's disturbing film, it makes one wonder why any sensitive person would have wanted to live in an American small town in the 1950s.
11/22/02
When Carey (Jane Wyman) first visits the Andersons, friends of Ron (Rock Hudson), Thoreau's Walden is placed on the table. She then reads a passage in which he describes the "mass of men living lives of quiet desperation," a summation of her life.
02/07/06
Sirk handles all of this in both a delicate and a heavy-handed manner that are oddly complementary
06/27/01
'Time, if anything, will vindicate Douglas Sirk,' wrote Andrew Sarris in 1968. He was right.
05/26/06
No review available.
05/30/03
Sirk’s film is filled with such satirical barbs at the American rat race, and horrifyingly enough, most of his attacks feel unusually prescient.
04/25/02
Yet another mystifyingly lionized Sirkian soaper.
01/07/04
A classic and beautiful film for those who love romantic stories
10/18/08
A potent story for the ages.
03/10/03
An example of a seemingly innocuous, mainstream movie having serious social criticism -- even subversion -- at its heart.
10/09/01
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
RT on YouTube 
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
RT on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds