What
could be more heavenly than a beautiful house surrounded by
trees resplendent with autumn leaves, a happily married couple,
and two adorable children in 1957, when civility and courtesy
were the norm in interpersonal relations? In Far
from Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes,
the principal characters discover private hells that were
absent from the much ballyhooed Pleasantville
(1998). Although women defer to men, and children obey orders
from parents without question, the cracks in the orderly world
of the 1950s are initially hidden from view. Frank Whitaker
(played by Dennis Quaid) is an advertising agency executive
in Hartford. His loving wife Cathy (played by Julianne Moore)
has such a busy social and philanthropic schedule that she
is interviewed and photographed for an issue in the local
society column early in the film. While the interview is in
progress, Cathy suddenly sees a strange Black man, Raymond
Deagan (played by Dennis Haysbert) in her yard. When she goes
outside to talk to him, he informs her that he has taken over
the gardening job from his father, who recently died. The
Supreme Court ordered school desegregation in 1954, and we
see a clip from President Eisenhower's announcement in 1957
that he would not allow Governor Orville Faubus of Arkansas
to use the state national guard to block desegregation of
Little Rock High School. Although in suburban Hartford Blacks,
called "colored people," are servants, not equals,
Cathy shows no prejudice and finds Deagan to be an excellent
interlocutor, informing her about his daughter, his store,
and the late Mrs. Deagan. The Whitakers also have a Black
housemaid, Sybil (played by Viola Davis). Meanwhile, Frank
appears to be an alcoholic. At the beginning of the film his
wife must bail him out of jail for driving under the influence
of alcohol, and the next morning, upon his arrival at work,
he secretly pours a drink into his coffee. That evening he
informs Cathy that he must work late and instead goes to a
gay bar for a drink, and in due course she finds her husband
kissing another man late at the office. Although Frank promises
to get a cure for his inexplicable compulsion, including both
psychiatry and a second honeymoon with Cathy in Miami, Frank
finds an attractive young man on the trip who persuades him
to give up his marriage so that he can have a life together
with his boyfriend. Meanwhile, Cathy allows Deagan to drive
her to a nursery and to a restaurant frequented by Blacks,
but a White woman at a nearby carwash discovers her being
accompanied by Deagan, and soon suburban telephones are ringing
off the hook, Sybil's daughter is hit by a rock after school,
and rocks are thrown at windows by Black people into Deanna's
house. The couple has a divorce, and Deagan leaves town for
Baltimore. But Frank and his lover may break up, and Cathy
may pursue Deagan as the races desegregate more quickly in
the 1960s. Far from Heaven shows
that individual human proclivities to be human proceeded faster
than the general recognition of the need for a more diverse
society, a point that is nothing new. The film suggests that
we really would like to know how American society got from
1957 to 2002, when gays are increasingly being accorded rights,
and marriages between Whites and Blacks no longer raise eyebrows.
The Far from Heaven soap opera would
be much more interesting if there were a sequel. MH
I
want to comment on this film
