What if you were watching "Leave it to Beaver", and suddenly, the dad revealed he was a homosexual? And what if Mrs. Cleaver wanted to get in on with her black gardener? Then you'd have an idea of what happens in Far From Heaven, a dark twisting of 1950s Hollywood films.

Director Todd Haynes meticulously recreates that era's filmmaking language. He uses the same lush style of cinematography, the same set design -- even the same typeface on the opening credits. This idyllic portrait of 1950s America, mainly inspired by the films of Douglas Sirk, seems familiar, until Haynes starts allowing things to happen that never happened in movies of that period. A married father struggles with his sexual identity. An unfulfilled housewife seeks a forbidden interracial romance. At first, the juxtaposition of "real" storylines in an "unreal" landscape seems almost humorous, but the film is not a send-up. Rather it is a poignant look at people imprisoned by the values of a repressed society.

The father despises his own desires to be with men, and tries to have his homosexuality "cured." The wife finds herself shunned by the community after she's seen having lunch with a man of another race. This a tragic film about people who are trapped in a world that prevents them from achieving their heart's desire.

Julianne Moore gives a quiet, powerful performance as the housewife who watches her world crumble. Dennis Haysbert (from the Fox show "24") generates great empathy as the kind, gentle gardener whose flowers represent the blossoming of a love which struggles to break free of the restraints of its time. But the bravest performance belongs to Dennis Quaid, as the husband leading a double life. In one performance, he shows more facets and more emotions than in an entire career, spanning four different decades.
(c) Copyright 2003