Intermission: Haynes delivers his best work in 'Far From Heaven'

Jim Wunderle is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.

Many of today's finest film directors are not only expert craftsmen, but are aficionados of the art form of filmmaking. Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese come immediately to mind and both have paid homage to their favorite films and filmmakers.

Director Todd Haynes is much the same, and his eloquently brilliant, subtly subversive masterpiece "Far From Heaven" is a loving tribute to films of the 1950s that also serves as a parody of the genre.

Haynes' most notable influence is Douglas Sirk's 1955 melodrama "All That Heaven Allows," but he's also borrowed from Sirk's 1959 film, "Imitation of Life," and Max Olphus' "The Reckless Moment." All three of these screenplays deal with the morals and mores of American life in the early days following World War II, and Haynes' film could have easily been one of the best films of the 1950s.

It is one of the best films of the last decade, and I'd have no problem awarding it Oscars for screenplay, director, leading actress, set design, cinematography, costumes and picture.

In the post-Christmas/pre-Oscar world this time of year usually brings a lot of fine features to our local screens. Movie lovers have been well rewarded in the past few months. I've been happy and have sung praises, but "Far From Heaven" is the best movie I've seen in the past year.

The film is subtly subversive and fits in quite nicely (at the top) with Haynes' other movies. "Safe" was a parable about living in the age of AIDS and toxic waste, and "Poison" was a disturbing trilogy of tales that was upsetting at the least and thought-provoking at best. Haynes has never made a film that didn't challenge his viewers. His first effort was "Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story" and it featured Barbie and Ken dolls instead of live actors. At first it seems like a campy farce, but ultimately it hits home as an examination of pop culture and American values. It's a creepy, but entirely effective, piece of work.

"Far From Heaven" is told from the female lead's perspective and Julianne Moore, a Haynes regular, has a role that was undoubtedly written for her estimable talents. She plays Cathy Whitaker, 1950s wife, mother and upstanding member of the community who, at first glance, reminds the viewer of Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver from "Leave it to Beaver." Her husband Frank, played by Dennis Quaid, is a typical post World War II workaholic, go-getter type well-known in films of this era. But he's hiding a dark secret that Cathy discovers early in the plot, and this leads her to reevaluate her own life and belief system. But she does so entirely in the social context of 1950s era America.

Cathy shocks her neighborhood coffee klatch crowd when she actually becomes friends with, and is seen speaking to in public, her gardener who happens to be a black man. The neighbors are shocked, and while Cathy finds nothing wrong with her friendship, she also doesn't cross any lines that she herself might deem unacceptable. It's a challenging, finely crafted role that Haynes and Moore manage to bring to life without one false moment.

Cinematographer Ed Lachman ably assists the director in his dead-on portrayal of the way movies and television (if not life itself) were realized in the '50s. The depth of field and perfect blend of colors and tone set off the mood and add enormously to the overall believability of what is transpiring on-screen. I can't remember a film that had a more perfect look to match the reality it was trying to invoke; perhaps the surreal setting of "City of Lost Children" or the dark moods of "The Godfather."

Elmer Bernstein composed the score and he, too, manages to catch the flavor of the time without the slightest bit of irony. In one powerful scene that the viewer would normally be appalled by, the first reaction is to laugh when the music juxtaposes so perfectly with the drama on screen.

"Far From Heaven" is very quiet on the surface, but at the same time is painfully powerful. It grabs you by your conscience and gently shakes the living daylights out of you.

There's really not much more I can say about "Far From Heaven," except to note that if it sweeps the Oscars, it will do so deservedly. I'm anxiously awaiting the day this is available for the home-video market as it's a film that deserves repeated, and reverent, reviewing.