Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Far from Heaven

This is topic Far from Heaven in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 12-01-2002, 12:14 PM:

AMC Hamilton, 11/30, 8 PM show. Hall #18, attendance 100+ (sold out a small hall). Picture OK with random dirt/negative dirt. Sound good for SR.

Far from Heaven is a throwback to all those melodramas that pop up now and then on TV. It's got lush photography (New Jersey locations doubling for Connecticut) and a lush score like dramas of old. Even the credit sequences look like they're from an old-style movie.

Julianne Moore is as good as advertised. Dennis Haysbert deserves an Oscar nomination: his gardener is a man who's worthy of respect but gets dissed for reasons common in the 50's.

Todd Haynes pushes a lot of hot buttons in his script. For that reason Far from Heaven may need major Oscar nominations to go wide. In the meantime search out a theater that's playing this picture.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-01-2002, 12:57 PM:

I liked this film; it was beautifully photographed and very well acted. Not something for everyone, but definitely worth seeing.

spoilers: The issue that I had with the film is that the ending doesn't really resolve anything; I spent two hours watching the main character's life fall apart, but didn't feel at all satisfied at the lack of resolution to any of her problems.

Edit: something that's been really bothering me about this film is the number of really obvious prop issues--e.g. the use of IBM Selectric typewriters in the office sets (the film is set in 1958; the Selectric didn't come out until the '60s), the use of both GTE and Western Electric telephone sets in the house (the region would have been served by either GTE _or_ ATT/Bell System, not both!), and the use of reverse (white-on-black) marquee letters at the theatre (which I don't think would have existed in 1958).

Posted by Mitchell Cope (Member # 32) on 03-02-2003, 05:06 PM:

What was the point of all this? It looked pretty "hokey" to me, which I could maybe have taken if there was a payoff... but there wasn't one. How Roger Ebert gave this 4 stars is beyond me. Aw shucks!