Paul J. Nemecek The eight weeks between the Academy Awards and Memorial Day represent a period of time that film aficionados like to call movie purgatory. The Oscar-nominees are old news and the summer blockbusters are not yet here. Often in this period we get the wretched refuse-the poor, tired, muddled messes yearning to be movies. There are a good number of candidates playing right now but instead of reviewing them I would rather review one of the Oscar nominees coming out on video this week. So I will.Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven is a poignant and moving film about life in the fictitious fifties. It's not that the fifties are fictitious (I was there, I know) but the mythical version wherein the fifties were near to heaven is what is being challenged here. The theme is similar to that of Pleasantville, but the tones and sensibilities are very, very different.Julianne Moore plays a housewife at the center of the storm. Moore is one of those great actresses who has had the good taste to be cast in offbeat, independent films of great quality. This year she was in two somewhat offbeat films, The Hours and Far From Heaven. She plays a fifties housewife in both films, but in The Hours her story is one of three interwoven vignettes and there is not much time for character development by way of a dramatic arc to the character. Far From Heaven gives her room to move and move she does.She plays the wife of a successful businessman (capably played by Dennis Quaid), and they represent the all-American success story of the fifties complete with suburban home, family, the esteem of the community and so forth. There are actually only a few minor complications along the way. Her husband is gay and an alcoholic. As they come to terms with both of these facts, they see their model life unraveling fast. They find a doctor who they hope can make the problems go away, but things don't work out quite the way they hoped.In the midst of her despair, Moore's housewife keeps the secrets and tries to keep a stiff upper lip. She eventually finds understanding and solace in conversations with their gardener. The gardener is a college-educated man who owns a nursery. He is articulate, sophisticated, and a caring human being. He is also a black man living in a New England town in the fifties.When their friendship is interpreted as something more than a friendship, gossip permeates the town and relationships are strained to the point of breaking. She refuses to expose her husband's infidelities while she is being accused of improprieties herself.The subplots make it clear that this is really a film about social intolerance and deception, especially self-deception. We kid ourselves when we convince ourselves that our current reality, our epoch in history, is the next best thing to heaven. We usually do so by sweeping problems under the rug. By exposing the dark side of prejudice and intolerance in the fifties this movie shows us how far from heaven we really were-and are.

Irishchatter I found this movie was quite disturbing since it was all to do with problems they had back then in the 1950's - homosexuality and racism. I swear, the way they talk about how disgusting it was, it just was so cruel and horrible!Julianne Moore's character Cathy Whitaker would have been better off with the gardener Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert) because honestly, their chemistry was so uplifting and sweet. I honestly wish they both had a happy ending together because I would be giving this movie another star if that scene ever happened but it didn't, so it lost one star from me! I wish we could look more on the husbands life. I say that would be interesting since it wasn't talked about in the 50's! I have to say folks, the music in the movie is great! So if you need a Sunday night movie, watch this!

maxdaddytj Definitely, that was Julianne Moore's year, and she was robbed of her Oscar by that fake nose on Nicole Kidman. This is by far her best work ever. Dennis Quaid wasn't even nominated, although he won the New York Film Critic's Award, and he should have won, too! I won't recap the plot - many others have already, but will emphasize how stunning the film is visually. Not a false note anywhere - Patricia Clarkson - hit all the right notes! Dennis Haysbert - why is not a bigger star? The costumes - perfect! In fact, my mother HAD that exact coat of Miss Moore's. I actually cannot praise this film highly enough. Obviously an homage to those glorious 50's and 60's films of Douglas Sirk, but with two very contemporary twists - man, if you've never seen it - see it ASAP! If you have seen it - see it again, and pretend as I do, Julianne Moore, in that gorgeous green gown, that year hearing her name and stepping up to accept that statuette that certainly should have been hers!

filmcritic1 This movie is absolutely awful. PC polemic pure and simple.The scenery characters and lines e.g. "aw shucks" are like they took all of TV for the 50s and distilled it down to 500 proof...then added 2012 sensibilities. The movie basically is revised history and a complicated lie. Nothing is covered in depth nor truthfully. The movie gives much more insight into it's creators than it's subject. Why do they insist on this myth? Surprised the thing didn't sweep the Oscars.The professional reviews were the only fun thing about this movie = Ebert: "Like Best and Bravest Movie of 1957." Village Voice: "Supremely Intelligent..." Rolling Stone: "Quaid and Moore give performance of their careers.." To give this movie such reviews is so ridiculous it is actually funny. Doesn't it bother them to be intellectually dishonest--or are they really that dumb?--you wonder.The reviews on IMDb that give it 1-2 stars are far more accurate.I agree with one reviewer--I never saw a 1956 Buick with fender skirts either---particularly a low end station wagon and they were a different color than the car body. Maybe a Roadmaster convertible owned by a pimp.Netflix advertised this as a gay/lesbian movie. That is like advertising a film about 9/11 as a movie for Saudi audiences.Moore's costumes and the rayed wall clocks are museum quality. This is a movie you want to forget as quickly as you can.DO NOT RECOMMEND