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MOVIES / ON DVD / FAR FROM HEAVEN
Far From Heaven

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Far From Heaven (2002)

91%
89%
84%
N/A
N/A
N/A
91 %
Reviews Counted: 180 Fresh: 164  Rotten:16 Average Rating: 8.2/10
 
Consensus: An exquisitely designed and performed melodrama, Far From Heaven earns its viewers' tears with sincerity and intelligence. An exquisitely designed and performed melodrama, Far From Heaven earns its viewers' tears with sincerity and intelligence. more
 
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Synopsis:
The model marriage of Frank (Dennis Quaid) and Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) in 1950s Hartford is depicted in television ads, and a magazine features photographs of Cathy as a model homemaker and citizen. Yet, behind the curtains of their dream home, Cathy and Frank hide scandalous... [More]
The model marriage of Frank (Dennis Quaid) and Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) in 1950s Hartford is depicted in television ads, and a magazine features photographs of Cathy as a model homemaker and citizen. Yet, behind the curtains of their dream home, Cathy and Frank hide scandalous secrets. Frank has been masquerading his homosexuality and is seeing a doctor for a heterosexual conversion. Meanwhile, Cathy finds solace in her gardener, Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), a black man about whom Cathy must conceal her growing feelings, since simply being seen with him is cause for scandal. Filmmaker Douglas Sirk employed the trappings of the melodrama to satirize and criticize narrow minds in the 1950s status quo with films such as ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS. Todd Haynes (SAFE) uses Sirk's highly stylized universe to critique society half a century later in FAR FROM HEAVEN. The film uses thematic elements of Sirk's such as isolating characters through windows and vivid, symbolic colors and flowers. It also applies Sirkian plot devices such as gossiping neighbors and demonizing television. Attacking prejudice, Haynes' methods are particularly effective as he uses an antiquated style of filmmaking to shed light on societal problems that are pervasive even in the 21st Century. [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, James Rebhorn

Director: Todd Haynes
Screenwriter: Todd Haynes
Producer: Jody Patton, Christine Vachon
Composer: Elmer Bernstein

DVD Info

Release:

Jan 4, 2003

[DVD Details]

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Ratings Image

Exultant in both its artifice and its cruel honesty, it's a movie Sirk would make today - and, as such, it's quite brilliant.

Full Review | Comment
01/26/06 03:16 AM
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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Whether you see this kind of thing as soap opera, or sophisticated satire, its appearance is so stiffly earnest that after a while the style becomes a given, and the content develops surprising power. We simply forget about the oddness, and become struck

Full Review | Comment
04/02/03 03:50 AM
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
UK Critic
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This would have been the best 'women's picture' ever made in '50s Hollywood - if anyone had been courageous enough to make it then. It's gorgeous to behold, the actors are wonderful, and Haynes' precise vision and control never waver.

Full Review | Comment
03/30/03 08:02 AM
Angie Errigo
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Heartbreaking and uncannily accurate.

Full Review | Comment
03/25/03 05:04 PM
Philip French
Guardian [UK]
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
03/08/03 08:07 AM
Alexander Walker
This is London
Ratings Image

Beautifully acted, sumptuously photographed melodrama from director Todd Haynes -- if Julianne Moore doesn't win the Best Actress Oscar there is, officially, no justice.

Full Review | Comment
03/08/03 08:07 AM
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
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A throwback to 1950s melodrama, Todd Haynes' involving picture may sit uneasy on the palates of modern audiences, but it's a taste worth acquiring.

Full Review | Comment
02/18/03 08:05 AM
Nev Pierce
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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Nothing short of genius, a film of near flawless perfection that addresses its themes with an unspoken subtlety and features revelatory, heart-stopping performances.

Full Review | Comment
01/23/03 08:05 AM
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
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An accomplished marriage of elaborate style and content.

Full Review | Comment
02/11/08 03:36 PM
David Rooney
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

An obsessive triumph of design and tribute, beautifully acted ... but this stuff was somehow more fun in the '50s.

Full Review | Comment
02/03/08 12:25 PM
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com
Ratings Image

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
07/14/07 06:20 AM
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound
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Moore is simply...wonderful.

Full Review | Comment
12/06/05 07:30 PM
Tim Merrill
Film Threat
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The film confronts the era’s intolerance with regard to gender and race relations, but it should be noted that Haynes films without a trace of irony. The actors offer similarly genuine performances.

Full Review | Comment
12/06/05 07:30 PM
Darrin Keene
Film Threat
Ratings Image

The best reason to see Far from Heaven is to watch Julianne Moore give one of her finest performances.

Full Review | Comment
12/06/04 05:10 PM
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer
Ratings Image

An ignorant, false, bigoted, boring, pretentious film that could have been made by Eisenstein in the Kremlin under Joseph Stalin in 1938.

Full Review | Comment
10/07/04 07:29 PM
Tony Medley
tonymedley.com
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Boldly goes where no 50's melodrama has gone before.

Full Review | Comment
08/13/04 08:32 AM
Mark Sells
Oregon Herald
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It's a rare thing when a movie makes you react emotionally to the repressive taboos of a past decade while...provoking you to reconsider the attitudes of present society.

Full Review | Comment
06/23/04 11:58 AM
Judith Egerton
Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
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A recriação do estilo de Douglas Sirk é interessante, mas soa como mero artifício de Haynes. Já a subtrama envolvendo Quaid (e a bela atuação deste) engrandecem o filme.

| Comment
06/07/04 03:24 PM
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
Ratings Image

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
03/16/04 05:09 PM
Apollo Guide
Ratings Image

An arid, faux-antique melodrama done in the style of 1950s director Douglas Sirk....Lacks a heart, or at least one with a measurable pulse.

Full Review | Comment
02/16/04 12:18 PM
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly
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