Rating: 
Summary: Pure Crap
Review: How could you take this movie seriously. The acting [and] the premise [are] weak, the plot is thin (this coming from a fan on Friday the 13th) and well this just wasn't a good movie. It just plain stunk. How could you get into a movie about a husband who becomes gay? The audience didn't take this seriously at all! It was a terrible attempt at movie making! This uniquely beautiful film--from one of the smartest and most idiosyncratic of contemporary directors, Todd Haynes takes the lush 1950s visual style of so-called women's pictures to tell a story that mixes both sexual and racial prejudice. But believe me fails at both. I will say that this did have good cinematography. Skip this and see Insomnia instead.
Rating:
Summary: Insipid
Review: Although Todd Haynes' intentions were no doubt very nice (i.e., to make a statement against racism and homophobia) this film is ultimately as bland and as risk-averse as those other two vastly overrated pieces of blockbuster Academy bait, THE HOURS and AMERICAN BEAUTY. AMERICAN BEAUTY explains to us how deathly life in the suburbs is, and adds the shocking twist - wait for it - that Mr. Suburban Respectability is actually a repressed [man]! THE HOURS explains to us (in humourless detail) how deathly life in the suburbs is, and adds the shocking twist - wait for it - that Mrs. Suburban Respectability is actually a repressed [woman]! With FAR FROM HEAVEN, we are on familiar ground: life in the suburbs is deathly dull and - wait for it - Mr. Suburban Respectability is actually a repressed [man]! Sure, originality is only one of many possible virtues a film can possess. Telling the same story over again can be extremely worthwhile if there is something new in the telling. But here there simply isn't anything to justify Haynes' limp refusal to strike any new narrative or thematic ground. The characters are sympathetic, but only because of their status, not any internal qualities they possess. We have the Closeted [prefers company of men] Executive, trapped by circumstances. We have the Repressed Housewife Seeking Something Different, trapped by circumstances. And, most patronising of all, we have the Decent, Hardworking Educated Black Man, also trapped by circumstances. The acting is adequate, with Dennis Haysbert the only stand out. Julianne Moore confirms her position, IMHO, as the female Kevin Spacey, i.e. a tortured yet smugly content soul who has insight into the human condition that mere mortals could only dream of achieving. ... Dennis Quaid gives a "bold" and "daring" "breakthrough" performance ' i.e., he plays a [prefers to be with men] man. Yawn. Perhaps worst of all, as in THE HOURS, anything approaching a sense of humour is again AWOL - all we get is leaden pomposity. If Haynes had approached this as a satire rather than the ploddingly serious and self-important manifesto it turned out to be, the film might have at least been entertaining. Although FAR FROM HEAVEN is supposed to be a daring expose of the reality of suburban life, the only people who I can imagine would find it provocative are the most hardcore of suburbanites. Can anyone really suggest that new ground has been broken with this film, or that any risks were taken? Didn't think so. As a matter of fact, my prediction is that Jerry Bruckheimer, in a boost to enhance his low standing with the Academy, will soon be pitching a film that involves a group of 27th century space cowboys living in the suburbs of Mars who, during an invasion by creatures from another dimension, find themselves trapped by circumstances and forced to confront boredom, hypocrisy, ... repression and closeted [desires]. After all, as Haynes has shown, it really doesn't require much imagination or courage to make a film that recycles these ideas yet again - and the Academy will invariably worship you for doing just that. If you are interested in seeing a bold, confrontational and innovative film that is willing to take enormous risks to confront the audience's notions of [social] correctness, social propriety and suburban complacency, check out the shocking, disturbing and hilarious HAPPINESS, by Todd Solondz. Unfortunately, it wasn't nominated for any Oscars so of course most of you won't bother, regardless of how willing to confront the banality of suburban life you might consider yourself to be. I would give this film 1/5 but it deserves an extra star for all the oh-so-pretty colours.
Rating: 
Summary: Beatiful soul and exordinaly courage of an ordinary person
Review: Julianne Moore plays a housewife with seemingly perfect life who finds out how her life was nothing but perfect. When the wife struggled with her husband's homosexuality, she found only person who stood by her with no judgmental was an African American Gardner. Sadly, the racism & bigotry surrounded them was bigger than what they controlled to maintain their friendship in 50's. All of the tragedy that the wife experienced, I thought this movie gives us a clear message that the wife will empower herself with the hope for idealism of fairness she found in herself as well as in a Gardner.
Rating: 
Summary: As deep as 35mm film...
Review: Other than Dennis Haysbert, there were no "people" in this movie. Even the caricatures that substituted for them were colorless. Dennis Quaid, normally a deeply charismatic actor, played a kind of a jerk, with personal problems. Despite his central importance to the plot, I hardly recall seeing his face, and was barely aware of his presence. Julianne Moore, who clearly weighed too much for the role, careened around like a barrel stuffed into a beautiful 50s dress. The shallowness of her portrayal (of what? of whom?) was disappointing. The actors frequently had to mouth lines that were written as the partial sentences that come out when people are having trouble expressing something. The choppy/interrupted speech technique didn't really work,. More than anything, it reminded me of the "Zip it!" scene in the second Austin Powers movie. The movie was visually beautiful, with many scenes worthy of being printed on fiberglass TV trays. I'll be watching for Dennis Haysbert--I hope he makes it huge, and Far from Here.
Rating:
Summary: Subtley profound
Review: It'ss true the plot of Far From Heaven is very simple, and even contrived and unrealistic at times. Many of the criticisms here is that it somehow feels inauthentic or that it's simply trying to reproduce the look and feel of movies of the 1950's. It's true, as one reviewer pointed out, that a wealthy white woman would have never gone to a racially mixed club with a black man in "real life," and this is exactly the point of the movie. This movies addresses, with brilliant subtlety, that movies are indeed completely contrived and unrealistic. All movies. As the set designer notes in one of the bonus features of the DVD, "Todd Haynes wanted a set that looked like a set, not a real house." The staginess, too perfect cinematography, and occasionally forced dialogue of Far From Heaven are always letting us know that we are watching something completely invented and unreal. Somehow all the actors, and really everything in the movie, walk a fine line between camp melodrama and searing emotion. The movie is so carefully controlled and acted, that when genuine anger and pain rise to the surface, it is quite shocking and sad. Moore somehow is melodramatic and real at the same time, and Quaid and Haysbert do excellent jobs, one not being the person who he really is, and the other his opposite. And yet the movie still addresses deep and divisive social issues with heartwrenching realism. Some may dismiss the racial and gay issues as passé, but are they really? There are still plenty of people cheating on their spouses because they've never been able to fully accept who they are, and interracial relationships are still slowly coming into acceptance in most places, not to mention of other race and class issues that are still quite prevalent. (And to the reviewer that suggested that gay men may still prefer "the secret life": No.) This is a complex, heartfelt, and wonderful film. If, after you first watch it, you think, "Huh? Did I miss the movie?", have a look at the extras that come with this DVD. You'll learn a lot of things about filmmaking, and you'll learn that Haynes has done something great and important here. Many people speak of the 1950's with great nostalgia. Haynes's film shows that, one, much of this nostalgia really came from movies, not real life, and two, a seemingly simple and clear-cut life is really just a cover for a complicated, messy, and confusing one.
Rating:
Summary: No easy answers as 1950s social taboos are broken
Review: This film has a lot going for it and I can easily understand why it received several Academy Award nominations. It's set in the 1950s, but it's a film that could never have been made at that time. That's because the themes of homosexuality and interracial romance could only be hinted at in those days. The story is about the kind of upscale suburban couple with two children who seem to have a perfect life. All is not well however. Both the husband and wife have both broken social taboos of the time and have to deal with the consequences. The acting is outstanding and so is the script. I was immediately involved in their predicaments and felt tension throughout as they tried to cope with the realities around them. Written and directed by Todd Haynes, the script is excellent and never preaches. At the same time, the dilemma was brilliantly etched in color. I mean this literally. The clothes were all 1950's style but, compared to films actually made in the 50's, they were uglier and brighter. In one scene all the women were dressed in bright orange hues. And even the gardener was dressed in an orange shirt and trousers. At other times they're all dressed in shades of green. Julianne Moore always had perfect makeup, wore bright dresses with full skirts and, for some strange reason, never carried a purse when she went anywhere. This gave the film a surreal feeling, almost like a comic book sketch, with the details exaggerated just enough to enrich the theme. This is a fine film. It captured an era as well as the individual stories. And it didn't give any easy answers. Definitely recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Far From Perfect...
Review: Though we are led to believe, at the beginning of this movie, that this is the perfect suburban family, we later learn this is far from true. The movie takes an interesting twist when the poised housewife played by Julianne Moore learns that her husband is gay. Of course she dare not tell anyone (especially those gossiping friends of hers), but she soon learns she can confide in her black gardener (it helps that he is tall, dark, deep-voiced --- oh, and i like how they they slipped in the fact that he has a business degree...ewwww an EDUCATED "negro"!). Of course, the gardener takes an interest in this docile, kind, white woman who happens to be someone else's wife (it's interesting to me that this fine black gardener is even single...his wife died six years ago? And none of those sistas around there tried to snatch him up? He could have had his choice of any number of women I'm sure...but he decides to take interest in his married employer...hmph...figures). Anyway, the movie rolls along at a fairly predictable pace, and I feel sorry for Moore's character who, unfortunately, has no true friends except for the gardener. Her best girlfriend seems more appalled at the wife's interest in the black gardener than in her husband's homosexuality. That she could be with a black man --- the mere idea --- WELL!! Of course the gardener is kind, accepting, charming, and handsome. He is soooo interested in her when she is married, so willing to challenge commonly held attitudes that spoke against their friendship. Yet when she comes to him at the end of the movie and tells him she is soon to be single (her husband wants a divorce), he is less interested. All of a sudden now the most important thing is his daughter; his daughter's best interest; his daughter's needs. He wasn't thinking about his daughter when he sent her outside to play with kids she didn't know so he could have a few moments to chat with his married employer at the art exhibit (yeah, and try to impress her with flowery words...uh huh...i got your number, buddy). Was he thinking about his daughter when he took that woman to lunch and danced with her? The fact is, things just didn't go how the gardener thought: his plan backfired and his daughter got hurt by white boys wanting to "teach her a lesson" because her father was close with a white woman. I felt so sorry for this housewife. Here she has a homosexual husband who wants to leave her for another man and she is hurt, yes. But there's the gardener. She has feelings for him. Maybe THEY can be together now. But the gardener has other plans. Think women are more attractive when their taken? I do. True motives and true love can be revealed when the going gets tough. If he really cared about that woman, he could have said, "of course you can visit me when I get settled in Baltimore...I care about you and I want to continue to explore this relationship." I know it was the 50s, but it's not like it was the south! Wish I would have known better...I may have passed on this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Movie with Overlooked Performances
Review: I watched Far from Heaven mostly on the strength of its reviews, particularly of Julianne Moore's performance. Although she received an Oscar nomination for her part in this film, she sadly lost to Nicole Kidman. My wife and I watched about half of the picture before she finally asked the question that I had in my mind-why wasn't Dennis Quaid nominated for an Oscar for this movie? Todd Haynes' obsession with 50s melodramas shows in just about every aspect of this story of a picture perfect 50s marriage crumbling apart because of the husband's homosexual urges and the wife's interest in a black gardener (played by the always excellent Dennis Haysbert). The attention to detail, the music, the costumes, the camera angles, the cinematography - are all very reminiscent of the kind of movies my mom used to watch. Personally, I thought the pacing of this movie was much too languid for my tastes, but that's the way they did 'em back then. While I wouldn't go so far as to call Far from Heaven a "chick flick", it's not one that will likely register with men. The reason anyone, male or female, should watch this picture is the standout performance delivered by Quaid. Don't get me wrong, Julianne Moore was good. But Quaid was clearly at the top of his form here. I find myself in agreement with the critics who were disappointed that he was overlooked by the Academy.
Rating:
Summary: No happy endings in this film
Review: Julianne Moore is so poised, so stiff and controlled, so 1958 in this film. She and her gay executive husband are perceived as the perfect "Mr. & Mrs. Magnatech" leading the perfect suburban life. Her dresses and hats and heels always match perfectly. Her children address her as "Mother"; her maid addresses her as "Mrs. Whitaker", she refers to her husband as "Mr. Whitaker", and her children are scolded for using such words as "geez" -- because that language is not used in the Whitaker household. The other reviews do a fine job of summarizing the plot and commenting on the acting. I kept hoping that Moore would run off with her gardener in the end -- his character was the perfect gentleman, the perfect friend, the perfect single father. He could tell when Moore was in need and reached out accordingly. He had more heart, soul and courage than any other character in the film. I found myself falling in love with the gardener in this film; the character was delicious and the acting was superb.
Rating:
Summary: Supberb and Astonishing.
Review: This film is by far one of the best films ever,and it was so underrated and so not widely recieved.
It is cinematically Beautiful,from the art direction,the sets,the costumes,the story,the wonderful score by Elmer Bernstein,and the Direction.
Hands down the best performances of the year belong to this film as well. Miss Moore is not only the finest living actress we have on this planet,but in my words and from my view point she was robbed of the academy award this year.
I just hope that soon she will be recognized with a win from the academy. Although that does'nt matter at all.
I too am a fan of Miss Kidman and the Hours, but just watch this film and you will see what i mean.
Dennis Quaid was robbed of even a nomination,and this is by far the most amazing performance he's ever given.
This is one of my favorite movies,and is a treasure to listen to and to watch. i hope you will all enjoy this film.
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