FAR FROM HEAVEN

Year: 2002
USA: USA Films
UK: Entertainment Film Distributors
Cast: Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis, James Rebhorn, Bette Henritze, Michael Gaston, Ryan Ward, Lindsay Andretta, Jordan Puryear, Kyle Timothy Smith, Celia Weston, Barbara Garrick, Olivia Birkelund, Stevie Ray Dallimore, Mylika Davis, Jason Franklin, Gregory Marlow, C C Loveheart, June Squibb, Laurent Giroux, Alex Santorello, Matt Malloy, J B Adams, Kevin Carrigan, Chance Kelly, Declan Baldwin, Brian Delate, Pamela Evans, Joe Holt, Ben Moss, Susan Willis, Karl Schroeder
Director: Todd Haynes
Countries: USA / France
USA & UK: 107 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexual content, brief violence and language
UK Certificate: 12A contains racial and sexual themes, and one use of strong language
USA Release Date: 8 November 2002 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 7 March 2003

Synopsis

Winner of the Coppa Volpi Award for Best Actress (Julianne Moore) and the Individual Contribution Award (given to cinematographer Edward Lachman) at the Venice International Film Festival 2002, FAR FROM HEAVEN tells the story of a privileged housewife in 1950s America. Despite the seemingly gorgeous and placid surface of family suburban life, writer/director Todd Haynes breaks them open to reveal a repressed world of limitless emotions and life-shattering desires that cross the boundaries of racial and sexual tolerance with tragic results.

It is the fall of 1957. The Whitakers, the very picture of a suburban family, make their home in Hartford, Conneticut. Their daily existences are characterised by carefully observed family etiquette, social events and an overall desire to keep up with the Joneses. Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) is the homemaker, wife and mother. Frank Whitaker is the breadwinner, husband and father. They have two pre-teen children, a boy and a girl.

As the story unfolds before us, Cathy's pristine world is transformed. Her interactions with the gardener, Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert); her best friend, Eleanor Fine (Patricia Clarkson); and her maid Sybil (Viola Davis), reflect the upheavals in her life. Cathy is faced with choices that spur gossip within the community and change several lives forever.