BEFORE: I can't follow up with a Catherine Zeta-Jones film, because I don't have any to watch. Anyway, she's one of those super-famous actresses who really hasn't made that many movies, when you start crunching the numbers. She's only got 39 credits in the IMDB, and that includes TV work and those crappy movies she made in Europe before going to Hollywood! How do you get to be that famous after so few movies? That's the American dream right there. Tom Cruise is another example, he has just 43 IMDB credits, but is super-famous. For the really extensive film resumés, you have to look at voice actors, character actors, and porn actors.
With that in mind, Patricia Clarkson carries over from "No Reservations", and so does a character actress making another cameo.
Here's an advance look at the schedule for TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" programming for tomorrow, February 4:
Best Cinematography Nominees & Winners:
5:45 am "Captains of the Clouds" (1942)
8:00 am "Million Dollar Mermaid" (1952)
10:00 am "The Thief of Bagdad" (1940)
12:00 pm "Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956)
2:15 pm "Ice Station Zebra" (1968)
5:00 pm "The Great Race" (1965)
8:00 pm "Black Narcissus" (1947)
10:00 pm "Zorba the Greek" (1964)
12:30 am "The Song of Bernadette (1943)
3:15 am "The Naked City" (1948)
5:00 am "A Farewell to Arms" (1932)
I'm only hitting for 2 out of 11 tomorrow, I've seen "Somebody Up There Likes Me" and "The Great Race", which brings my total up to 19 out of 45, and down to 43%.
THE PLOT: In 1950's Connecticut, a housewife faces a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in the outside world.
AFTER: In many ways, this film is a re-make, or update, of the 1955 film "All That Heaven Allows", in which an upper-class widow, played by Jane Wyman, falls in love with her gardener, played by Rock Hudson. With what we know now about Rock Hudson's secret life, it almost seems like someone wanted to make a reference to his lifestyle by adding the gay husband character here, and then creating another kind of scandal by making the gardener African-American, so the film could touch on issues of racism as well. It makes sense, every film reflects the time is was made, so a film from 2002 might naturally have an agenda to prove that gay people were always there, just hiding, and that racism wasn't limited to the South.
But we've come a long way since 2002, and what stands out to me here is the fact that the female lead character is woefully underdeveloped. I might expect that a story set in 1957 would depict a woman feeling helpless in a male-dominated world, but it overreaches in this sense. She can't even stand up for herself when her husband's "working late" turns out to be making out with another guy at the office? (We see them kissing, and I'm sure they were probably doing a lot more than kissing, but I guess even in 2002 audiences weren't ready to see more.). What about, "Frank, please explain what I saw!" or how about "How long have you been sleeping with men, Frank?" Nope, nothing like that, she just goes with him to his first therapy session, but isn't even allowed to be part of the conversation. Girl, you step up and you MAKE yourself part of that conversation!
Without seeing most of Frank's therapy, how do we the audience know that he's making progress? Wait, should I even use the word "progress" when referring to gay conversion therapy? Progress should be more toward reaching some form of acceptance, not trying to pray the gay away, or use ECT or drugs or anything like that. I don't even think they say the word "gay" anywhere in this film, they just allude to it with phrases like "light in the loafers", which is kind of sad. If nobody can say it, then they're not really dealing with it. Also, is he gay or bisexual? I mean, he had two children with Cathy, so their relationship was physical at one point. Maybe he needs both types of relationships in his life, and he only wants to be with a man because he's been with a woman for so long. But nobody here can see the big picture like that, either.
For comparison, I look to the film "Carol", which I watched last year, and is a much more powerful film, partially because it's told from the P.O.V. of the spouse having the homosexual affair, and it also shows the woman in a position of power, getting what she wants, and not taking the husband's needs into consideration. The husband in "Carol" is quite ineffectual, if anything his role is similar to the female role from "Far From Heaven".
As a result, this story had some really weak sauce, with so many unanswered questions - did Frank at least give her alimony? Was she awarded sole custody of those kids that never listened to her? Did she ever get down to Baltimore? Did she ever find love again, or did she just sit around the house and sulk for the rest of her life?
I also had an issue with the way that some of the characters talked, there was too much exposition in their lines, and overall that made them seem really fake. Like Frank saying, "Honey, I have to work late, because I'm the second assistant executive at MagnaTech! The Jenkins proposal isn't going to review itself, that's the responsibility of the second assistant executive!" Yeah, I don't think people ever talked like that, not even in 1957. Too many notes. "Frank, come on, it's 10 seconds to midnight on New Year's Eve and we're in Miami and it's 90 degrees - shouldn't we raise our glasses and kiss when the band counts down to zero?" Nobody would say any of that, they'd just go and do it.
Also starring Julianne Moore (last seen in "The Hunger Games; Mockingjay - Part 2"), Dennis Quaid (last seen in "Vantage Point"), Dennis Haysbert (last heard in "Mr. Peabody & Sherman"), Viola Davis (last seen in "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them"), James Rebhorn (last seen in "Regarding Henry"), Michael Gaston (last seen in "Bridge of Spies"), Celia Weston (also carrying over from "No Reservations"), Barbara Garrick (last seen in "Miami Rhapsody"), Bette Henritze, June Squibb, Ryan Ward, Lindsay Andretta, Jordan Puryear, J.B. Adams, Matt Malloy (last seen in "Dr. T & The Women"), Olivia Birkelund.
RATING: 4 out of 10 modern art paintings
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