Far From Heaven - streaming on Netflix - *****

[cbayer]

Somehow, I missed this the first time around.



Far from Heaven
2002PG-131hr 47m

When she finds her husband (Dennis Quaid) with another man, a Connecticut housewife (Julianne Moore) finds herself dealing with infidelity and the racial tension that epitomized the late 1950s at the advent of the Civil Rights movement in America. As a coping mechanism to deal with the emotional turmoil, she develops an unlikely friendship with her African-American gardener (Dennis Haysbert), who's full of sage wisdom.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. The cool thing about that film

was the deliberate effort of the firm makers to copy the 1955 look of the Rock Hudson/Jane Wyman movie
"All That Heaven Allows".
They did an excellent job. Changed the story line a bit, and the title, but many similarities.

[cbayer]

2. I found it fascinating to watch.

The stylized language, behavior and costuming was magnificent.

And the breaks when the characters showed who they really were were all the more striking in that context.

I'm not familiar with the Hudson/Wyman movie, but will look for it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Back in that tmie period, there were a lot of "soap opera" movies being made.

Jane Wyman and Rick Hudson were together again in another one, which was supposed to be a tearjerker, but even at the tender age of 10 or so, I found it silly.

Magnificent Obsession

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047203/

today we call them "camp", I suppose.