It is 1957. The Magnatech family live in a perfect country town in Connecticut. Cathy Whitaker is the perfect wife and mother of two children a girl and a boy. She is immaculately dressed, well mannered and a constant support to her husband Frank. Actually she would have made the perfect Martha Stewart. Cathy's husband works in Magnatech, and they are on the perfect couple billboards for the television company. But all is far from perfect in this little town.
Julianne Moore is a magnificent Cathy. She finds herself stifled by the town's and her friends expectations of her. Cathy's troubles begin when she is noted by her kindness to negroes, She strikes up a friendship with the gardener Raymond Deagen - a well educated store owning black man who is as interested in art as she is. And the town begins to talk. The movie tries to show how suppressed life in the fifties was, especially for women whose roles were to be the dutiful wife and mother and anything that went against normality was frowned upon. Sex is implied but not spoken about, homosexuality is considered as a condition which may be cured.
Frank Whitaker has troubles of his own and it is Cathy's duty to support him. She does this with the typical etiquette of the times, keeping the children quiet, inviting friends round etc. The scenery in this is fantastic, it is fall in Connecticut and the reds and greens add to the perfect concept of the film. All people have their problems, but it showed a time when things could not be addressed and resolved. It is a woman's struggle to keep things around her the way they are and to keep things normal. Far From Heaven made me appreciate how safe and secure the fifties were, but made me realise that being normal comes with a price. |
