Far From Heaven (2002)

89% of critics liked it
(190 reviews)
77% of users liked it
(21,266 ratings)

Maverick director Todd Haynes embraces the look and feel of classic Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s in this period drama. Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) and her husband, Frank (Dennis Quaid), are a seemingly perfect couple; living in a handsome suburban neighborhood in Hartford, CT, in 1957,… More Maverick director Todd Haynes embraces the look and feel of classic Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s in this period drama. Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) and her husband, Frank (Dennis Quaid), are a seemingly perfect couple; living in a handsome suburban neighborhood in Hartford, CT, in 1957, Cathy and Frank have a beautiful home and two happy, healthy children, while Frank pursues a successful career in sales and Cathy cares for the home. But Cathy has begun to sense something isn't quite right in her marriage, as Frank begins working late, spending less time with her, and seems cold and distant. One day, Cathy visits Frank's work and discovers something she never expected -- her husband is kissing a man. At Cathy's urging, Frank undergoes psychotherapy, but as she tries to keep up a brave face, the emotional trauma takes a great toll on her, and she finds there are very few people she can talk with. Cathy strikes up a friendship with Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), an African-American gardener who works for the Whitakers, and as she discovers how intelligent and compassionate Raymond is, she finds herself drawn to him. However, Hartford is in many ways still a small town, and when Mona (Celia Weston) sees Cathy and Raymond alone together, it sets off a wave of vicious gossip that threatens to make the Whitakers' many secrets public knowledge. Far from Heaven premiered at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, where Julianne Moore's performance won the prize for Best Actress. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 48 min.
Directed By: Todd Haynes
Written By: Todd Haynes
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Apr 1, 2003 Wide
On DVD: Apr 1, 2003
Studio: USA Films

Critic Reviews

David Rooney, Variety
An accomplished marriage of elaborate style and content.
Peter Rainer, New York Magazine
Achieves the same sentimentality as the Sirk films, and in much the same way.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Though less obviously a tour de force than many flashier recent art films, such as Alexander Sokurov's one-take feature Russian Ark, it's no less impressive as a technical achievement.
Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee
The film oozes craft.
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
Well worth seeing for its visual approximation of the Douglas Sirk-Ross Hunter 'women's pictures' of the 50's.
Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle
Well-written, nicely acted and beautifully shot and scored, the film works on several levels, openly questioning social mores while ensnaring the audience with its emotional pull.
Nell Minow, Common Sense Media
Sensitive, mature melodrama about sexuality in the 1950s.
Garth Franklin, Dark Horizons
One of the most beautiful looking and surprising films of the year.
Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
It's evident that the movie is in love with itself.
Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com
One of those films that hits just about every of its intended notes right that descriptions seem moot.
Mark Halverson, Sacramento News & Review
One of most experimental and inebriating films of the year.
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
An obsessive triumph of design and tribute, beautifully acted ... but this stuff was somehow more fun in the '50s.
Prairie Miller, WBAI Web Radio
Censorship dictated the Hollywood product of the time, reflecting only the most idealized notion of U.S. society, with all sorts of skeletons shoved decisively into their closets.
Joe Lozito, Big Picture Big Sound
This is easily Oscar caliber work and absolutely Ms. Moore's best to date.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Exultant in both its artifice and its cruel honesty, it's a movie Sirk would make today - and, as such, it's quite brilliant.
Tim Merrill, Film Threat
Moore is simply...wonderful.
Darrin Keene, Film Threat
The film confronts the eraâ(TM)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.
Jeffrey Overstreet, Looking Closer
The best reason to see Far from Heaven is to watch Julianne Moore give one of her finest performances.
Tony Medley, tonymedley.com
An ignorant, false, bigoted, boring, pretentious film that could have been made by Eisenstein in the Kremlin under Joseph Stalin in 1938.
Mark Sells, Oregon Herald
Boldly goes where no 50's melodrama has gone before.

Read all 24 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

EightThirty .

21/08/2010 (TELEVISION) I had nothing better to do and happened to catch this on TV. Good thing I did, I really got soaked into it and began to be concerned while the story continued to unleash the darkness. It's around the 1950's, so the whole interracial thing is a… More
21/08/2010 (TELEVISION) I had nothing better to do and happened to catch this on TV. Good thing I did, I really got soaked into it and began to be concerned while the story continued to unleash the darkness. It's around the 1950's, so the whole interracial thing is a "BIG NO NO" along with homosexuality. A story that tells us how it was and how it usually ended which in reality is not always good sadly. The world was so black and white at one stage and full of prejudice and "false righteousness". Though truthful and sad it's a decent enough flick for having a glimpse of the world before now.
Jeremy S

Far From Heaven is a beautiful and fascinating story of Julian Morre as a 50s 'perfect world' suburban housewife watching her marriage fall apart and falling in love with her gardener. This film captures the mood and style of the 50's era, conservative, charming, niaive… More
Far From Heaven is a beautiful and fascinating story of Julian Morre as a 50s 'perfect world' suburban housewife watching her marriage fall apart and falling in love with her gardener. This film captures the mood and style of the 50's era, conservative, charming, niaive and deeply divided. A film that will remain a classic.
Lorenzo v

"What imprisons desires of the heart?" In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife faces a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in the outside world. <center>"What imprisons desires of the heart?" In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife faces a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in the outside world. <center>REVIEW</center> Filmmaker Todd Haynes' valentine to 1950s melodramatic maestro auteur Douglas Sirk outdoes himself in grand style in the depiction of a Connecticut family's sudden downward spiral circa 1957 focusing on Cathy Whitaker (Moore in a sterling performance of Oscar caliber), a happy homemaker doting on her family and tv sales exec husband Frank (Quaid at his career best) who are both living lives of lies that threaten to destroy their seemingly blissful carefree existence in their all-too-knowing community. Haysbert as the local greens keeper hired by Cathy is also compellingly excellent in a sublime form of acting as the seemingly lone black man in a town of intolerance prickling beneath its calm demeanor. The exquisitely rich cinematography and production design by Edward Lachman and Mark Friedberg, respectively, convey the bristling darkness at the corners of paradise via suburbia with its rich autumnal palette suggesting a metaphor for the film as a whole: color changes everything. Kudos to elder statesman musical composer Elmer Bernstein's heartbreakingly poignant score underscoring the nightmare at hand. One of 2002's best films.
Dan S

A very heartfelt, original look on some very controversial issues that seem completely out of place for the simplistic culture of the 1950's. This film surprised me, it tackles a lot of topics, and it features many twists that I didn't see coming. Not only does this… More
A very heartfelt, original look on some very controversial issues that seem completely out of place for the simplistic culture of the 1950's. This film surprised me, it tackles a lot of topics, and it features many twists that I didn't see coming. Not only does this period-piece stay true to its setting, but it's able to detail its rough subjects with relative ease. Moore is a revelation, her and Quaid look like they were born for these roles. Dennis Haysbert gives an extremely strong, understated performance that nearly steals the show (he has a habit for doing this, see "24"). This is a romance film that will keep you interested til the end, until it rips your heart out in its final scene.
Mason W

Very good movie that is worth watching. Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid shine in this dramatic story of a seemingly perfect family in 1950's CT. Even a "picture perfect" family is open to all the same issues that everyonr faces and more.
Drew S

It's a shame that Far From Heaven's third act lags as much as it does, because its first hour is downright stunning. It grabs your attention with some lavish, lovingly-constructed set design and camera work - Todd Haynes is a true master of image on film. The beauty is… More
It's a shame that Far From Heaven's third act lags as much as it does, because its first hour is downright stunning. It grabs your attention with some lavish, lovingly-constructed set design and camera work - Todd Haynes is a true master of image on film. The beauty is inorganic, but never fake; it almost reminded me of Suspiria, strangely enough, with the bleeding colors and dark sets. Once the movie has sway over you visually, it reels you in for the catch with fantastic dialogue, great scene work and a handful of really strong performances. Julianne Moore is perfect all the way through. Her performance is metered and informative, but considering that she's acting in a melodrama homage, she never really breaks character. Almost right off the bat, you get a read on Cathy - she is outwardly conventional, but full of surprises. A woman who is almost, but not quite, ready to enact change in the world around her. Far From Heaven makes a lot of interesting statements, but for the movie to truly have been great, it needed to finish them as well. A previous Todd Haynes film, Safe, had a very similar ending. Though we get a good idea of where the main character is going to end up, her true fate is left up to speculation. This is a very different movie from Safe, however; it is much more expository, and that approach simply doesn't work as well here. It's not that I'm anti-ambiguity, but it really would have behooved the movie to wrap things up a little more. Had Todd Haynes infused a few more ideas into the twilight hours of Far From Heaven, it would have been a much stronger film. As it is, though, it is still worth watching: a vivid and often brilliant homage to both 50s melodrama and the woe-begotten values of the past.
Daniel P

A good movie, but talk about SLOW! Stick with it, though - the story is like a train coming down the tracks, wobbling more and more drastically from side to side, and eventually, it will derail. You come to realize that instead of idylls, these characters are more like grotesques.
Jennifer X

alright movie. cinematography more impressive than actual acting.
jay n

Julianne Moore's beautifully nuanced performance is the anchor for this highly stylized film filled with period detail and fine work from the whole cast. Her lost of the oscar to kidman is another example of the award's increasing loss of value as a judge of worth.
Michael G

This movie is so beautiful it makes me want to freak out.
Rico Z

If Julianne Moore hadn't been nominated for her performance in The Hours the same year she was nominated for this movie, she would've won for Far From Heaven. This movie deals with so much more than suburban life in the 50s. It touches on subjects that were considered taboo… More
If Julianne Moore hadn't been nominated for her performance in The Hours the same year she was nominated for this movie, she would've won for Far From Heaven. This movie deals with so much more than suburban life in the 50s. It touches on subjects that were considered taboo in that era-- namely, the themes on gays and racial issues. At first glance Moore's performance is flighty and superficial but you can really see the depth in her talent if you look beyond the surface. Great performance by Dennis Quaid as well.
Luke B

Best film of 2002. Perfectly captures that 50's feel, before turning it on its head. Quaid, Haysbert and Moore all deserved oscars for this perfectly crafted drama.
Mark A

Hard to believe this received four academy award nominations. This movie fell victim to its own ambition. The producers said they wanted to make a film in the style of the melodramas of the fifties, but with 21st century sensibilities. The sets and the costumes and the brilliant color… More
Hard to believe this received four academy award nominations. This movie fell victim to its own ambition. The producers said they wanted to make a film in the style of the melodramas of the fifties, but with 21st century sensibilities. The sets and the costumes and the brilliant color palette all hit their marks. However, the script seemed stilted and the acting stiff, at least in the early stages. By the time the emotional land mines were encountered, the film ran a little more true. Now to the story. Apparently, in the fifties, a white woman being friends with a black man, even in the Yankee north, was more scandalous than finding out your husband is attracted to men. The irony of Kathy (Julianne Moore) finding someone "outside" the situation to confide in, thereby bringing him "inside" was not lost on this viewer. But because that outsider was her gardener, Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), everyone in the town reacts with disdain. Even Kathy's best friend, Eleanor (Patricia Clarkson) turns away at the news that she has befriended a black man. The prejudice is not confined to the whites, however as the persecution that Raymond experiences from his own people ultimately provides the obstacle that cannot be overcome. I had hoped that those days were long gone, but this current election season seems to indicate that we have not yet fully achieved MLK's dream. A good, solid film, just not great.
Jake B

Lushly made, finely detailed and grandly moving. This is a wonderful film, with some outstanding performance. One of the best films of the decade.
Mike T

By evoking visual and tonal qualities of Technocolor melodramas from the film's time period, Todd Haynes gives his work a gorgeous texture. He also toys with the idea of content and form, with results that are often profoundly upsetting and moving. Far from Heaven calls us to… More
By evoking visual and tonal qualities of Technocolor melodramas from the film's time period, Todd Haynes gives his work a gorgeous texture. He also toys with the idea of content and form, with results that are often profoundly upsetting and moving. Far from Heaven calls us to make parallels between contemporary problems and the kinds of problems faced by citizens of 1950s American suburbia. The comparison and alignment of problems is troubling, effective, and intelligently executed. The performances match the quality of Haynes' writing and direction, which is to say they are superb.
Nicolas K

It's not often that a movie moves you in ways where you both feel for the the repressive taboos of a past decade whilst triggering you to re-evaluate the behaviour of present society. Julianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert are really bearing their souls out with performances that… More
It's not often that a movie moves you in ways where you both feel for the the repressive taboos of a past decade whilst triggering you to re-evaluate the behaviour of present society. Julianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert are really bearing their souls out with performances that will mark both their careers.
Andrew F

A mesmerizing movie that cleverly pays homage to movies of the 1950s.
Alec B

The more I watch it, the more I realize the absolute brilliance of it. Its a magnificent homage to Douglas Sirk films of the 1950s while at the same time it really confronts the issues that were always under the surface of those films and the time period but never confronted. At the… More
The more I watch it, the more I realize the absolute brilliance of it. Its a magnificent homage to Douglas Sirk films of the 1950s while at the same time it really confronts the issues that were always under the surface of those films and the time period but never confronted. At the same time it doesn't mock those films or the period, which would have been easy, but it allows the hyper-realism that existed in those films to drive the film to some very powerful emotions. The performances are perfect. Julianne Moore is always amazing, but the real surprise was Dennis Quaid who gives the best performance in this film. Its not a film that many will appreciate or really understand but I think it is truly amazing.
Joey N

Goregously contructed homage to 1950s melodrama. Juliane Moore leads a graceful cast. The film feels relavent and even dated in the sense that this could have been made in the 1950s. And I mean that as a good thing.
Anastasia B

Even though this production is immaculate- like the direction and photography, the costumes and the art design, I couldn't help feeling that this film is dull. Of course, the 50s were equally dull and the problems that the film poses today seem ridiculous for our standards.… More
Even though this production is immaculate- like the direction and photography, the costumes and the art design, I couldn't help feeling that this film is dull. Of course, the 50s were equally dull and the problems that the film poses today seem ridiculous for our standards. Discrimination due to race and sexuality may still exist but it is not that blatant, the way it was back then, to the point of a white man warning a black man for simply touching the arm of a white woman on the street.