Far From Heaven
Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Todd Haynes' brilliant, unforgettable "Far From Heaven" starring Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid and Dennis Haysbert.
Moore, as perfectly described in this Salon.com review, is "blazing at its center in red and gold, like a bouquet of autumnal foliage in a fine china vase." In other words, simply ravishing.
Moore portrays a privileged late 1950s suburban housewife trying to juggle her impeccable civic image with her personal life at home, which in line with numerous other utopian throwback movies to the 50s, is anything but rosy.
But unlike other films which attack the façade through jokes and over-characterization, Haynes explodes the myth by setting the film as close to a typical 1950s movie as he can; the dialog, costumes, music, set design, and even typography speak for themselves (ignore the God-awful Trajan-style typesetting of the poster and web site - the opening and closing credits are every bit as true to the decade as the rest of the movie).
For the first 30 minutes, you can't help but laugh at the antiquated dialog, the conversations between Moore and her suburban housewife friends, and the rigid color / gender lines of the time. Once the "stage" sets in however, the characters become much more than just porcelain reproductions of mid-century Hollywood. They become believable in their roles, and for a while you forget you're watching a period movie. Get beyond the brilliant technical execution, and you have real people with hearts and emotions as vivid as any other time.
The movie delves into the undercurrents of suburban societal pressures of mid-century America, where all husbands are prosperous, handsome, supportive fathers and their wives are pictures of perfection. Two separate, yet intriguingly similar "issues" disrupt their lives; causing chaos with both their family and public image. Fortunately for the audience, Haynes' wisely keeps the movie from wandering into a morality lesson, or jumping onto a soapbox and morphing Moore's character into a defiant, symbolic figure. She is trapped by the very society she so embraces, and for the sake of her children is forced to align herself with the status quo.
This is one of those movies I can't wait to be released on DVD to see all the behind the scenes art direction. But for now, it's very much worth seeing (if you happen to be blessed with a "select theater" near you).
Comments
Hey, I like Trajan! What's so ugly about it?
Posted by: Paul at December 2, 2002 4:34 AM
Trajan! I have been wondering what this typeface was named for over 4 yrs now! Mystery solved!
Posted by: grubi at December 2, 2002 8:24 AM
Ah...right. I see how that could be misconstrued. The rampant overuse of Trajan (and other faces) in Hollywood film titles is what's God-awful to me - not the typeface.
Posted by: Todd Dominey at December 2, 2002 9:46 AM
For those who care, Mark Simonson (of Typecasting fame) wrote to me to say about the movie:
"You were right. I saw the movie yesterday and they did a superb job capturing the time and place. It was like stepping into an old magazine or calendar from the period. I did notice one really unfortunate type gaff: In the New Year's party scene in Florida one of the shots starts off with a close up of a sign and pulls back to show the musicians and people dancing. The sign looks almost like something done on an inkjet printer (with rainbow colors, etc.) and features at least one font totally out of place: Footlight, designed in 1985 and one of the fonts that Microsoft distributes with Office. I didn't get a good look at the other font on the sign, but I'm pretty sure is was a House font or something similar (Dollhouse or Countryhouse possibly). There was a slight error with a sign outside the police department set in Helvetica Condensed, but it's not very noticeable. Also, the Lucida Handwriting featured in the closing credits felt somewhat out of place."
Posted by: Todd Dominey at December 9, 2002 6:08 PM
My wife and I saw this on the weekend and loved it. I actually smirked when the film's title popped up, it was such a perfect re-creation of the period.
I agree with you wholeheartedly about the film. I'm eagerly waiting for the DVD just to experience those colours again!
Posted by: James at December 10, 2002 10:33 AM
