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Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven is a film that understands this, yet somehow is able to have its cake and eat it too. Our story begins in the 1950's and the land of Ozzie and Harriett. Cathy (Julianne Moore) is the perfect housewife who seems to have it all: money, prominence, kids and a loving husband. But then Cathy gets quite a surprise late one night when she catches her husband Frank (Dennis Quaid) in a homosexual tryst with another man. (Yikes, this never happened on Leave It to Beaver!) Quickly, her seemingly fantasy world begins to collapse around her. She eventually finds consolation in the arms of her African-American gardener, Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), but perhaps the only thing worse than being a homosexual in 50's suburbia is loving a black man? Such a story could never end happy.

Post-Ordinary People, post-Blue Velvet, post-Jerry Springer, exposing the evils that lurk beneath the facade of small-town America is nothing new. Is there anything left to expose in a culture that continues to mistake notoriety for fame? America loves humiliation and shame, especially when it's flogged for the masses as "reality TV." One could argue that the melodramas of the 50's were nothing more than a precursor to such tabloid fodder, albeit more restrained simply out of necessity. So what Todd Haynes has done - brilliantly - with Far from Heaven is make a movie that isn't so much about suburban repression as a movie about movies about suburban repression. While not truly postmodern in the sense that it calls attention to its own conventions and narrative devices, a la Scream, Haynes telling both his story and critiquing the way consume the art and artifice of the genre itself. It's a direct homage to the work of Douglas Sirk, and such a heady experiment could have easily fall apart amid film school pretense. But here Haynes has crafted his most accomplished work to date, a daring art house experiment that is actually emotionally satisfying.

Going into Far from Heaven, I have to admit I was very wary as I am not much of a fan of Hayne's past work. I found Safe to be a stilted, uninvolving exercise in failed intellectualism, and however much I wanted to love it, Velvet Goldmine just didn't do it for me. But with Far from Heaven, he has found the perfect vehicle for his unique talents. Aided immeasurably by the gorgeous photography of Edward Lachman, Haynes is at last able to meld his love of ornate, even passive staging (although I still longed for a more mobile camera) with a dynamite script brimming with intellectual ideas. And for once, he doesn't sacrifice drama for pat pop psychology. This film is filled with repressed emotions simmering beneath the surface, which is perfectly reflected by the pristine surfaces and deliberately slow pacing. Haynes has also expertly cast his film. Moore astounds as always, but the real revelation is Quaid, who announces himself as an actor finally coming into his own. Oscar nomination or not, get this guy more great scripts, and fast.

Far from Heaven may still be too ornate and obtuse to ever fully connect with the masses, but pay attention those of you who want to be challenged, not placated by your entertainment. You have just found the best movie of 2002.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

While the past couple of years have been marked by iffy transfers from most of the major studios, over the past several months I've been impressed by the consistency in the quality of most new releases. Case in point is Universal Studios Home Video, who have often delivered decidedly subpar transfers, marred by too much edge enhancement or poor compression work. But Far from Heaven is only the latest in a string of topnotch new releases from them, which are about as close to perfect as you're going to get.

Presented in its original 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio and anamorphically encoded, this is an all-around exquisite image. However, many might be initially taken aback for it almost looks vintage. Intended to replicate the Technicolor melodramas of the Sirk era, it's not as clean in terms of color reproduction as a more "modern," slick Hollywood product, and hues veeralmost to the point of oversaturation. (Proper calibration of your monitor is essential.) Yet this transfer maintains the integrity of the theatrical presentation I saw, so I can't fault it. The print is pristine, with excellent blacks and generally strong contrast. The film does look a bit dark; falloff in the low end of the grayscale is steep, which does lessen shadow delineation. But I found detail to be very good throughout and appropriate to the material. The transfer is also thankfully free of any noticeable edge enhancement, although I did notice a tad bit of compression artifacts from time to time. Some may think Far from Heaven doesn't look as good as it should, but I for one found it to be right-on.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Presented in both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround, truth be told I found both mixes to be a bit flat. Although it gets my pick for the best score of 2002, Elmer Bernstein's terrific work here is about the only notable aspect of this soundtrack. It sounds beautiful and evocative, benefiting from very spacious dynamic range, and dialogue reproduction is natural and full. However, it's just not a very aggressive soundtrack. I couldn't detect any distinction between the DTS and Dolby tracks at all, with just-average surround presence and an uninspired use of effects. I detected some sense of separation across the fronts, but again it is primarily the score. You could argue Haynes was opting to recreate the feel of 50's era melodramas, but I do wish these mixes were more exciting.

Also included is a French 5.1 Dolby surround track, English captions encoded as subtitles, and French and Spanish subtitles.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Despite the film's lack of big box office and truckload of Oscar nominations expected, Universal has sported for a fairly good assortment of supplements. The most rewarding is Todd Haynes' new screen-specific audio commentary. I thought this was a fabulous track, filled wall-to-wall with great insight and small minutiae. He goes very in-depth into just about every aspect of the making of his film, from the casting to the locations, the production design to the many allusions to melodramas of the past. If anything, it might be too technical for casual fans, but then are there really any casual fans of classic 50's melodramas? Or of Todd Haynes? I was almost worn out at the end of this one, but I certainly wouldn't dare not recommend it. (About the only missed opportunity here was getting the cast involved, or even better, a separate cast commentary. Since this just might be the best work Moore and Quaid have ever done, can we hope for a two-disc special edition someday?)

Next up we have three featurettes. The 27-minute Sundance Channel special, Anatomy of a Scene. I'm usually negative towards including regurgitated TV fare on DVDs, but I really like these Sundance productions. Although the title is a bit of a misnomer, as it really covers more than just a single scene, we get a strong overview of Haynes and Edward Lachman's approach to the visual style of the film, as well as contributions from the cast including Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid, plus much of the main crew, including production designer Mark Friedberg, costume designer Sandy Powell, editor James Lyons and composer Elmer Bernstein.

Of course, a great TV special apparently wasn't enough, because they also had to include the fluff EPK piece, the 11-minute The Making of Far from Heaven. I made the mistake of watching this one after the Sundance special, and it was a waste of time. It's just an 11-minute commercial, although it sure looked like fun to make despite its subject matter. The last major video-based supplement was very disappointing. The Filmmakers Experience: Q&A with Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes sounded great: Rob Kendt interviews Haynes and Moore live in front of a captive audience at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, but it only runs a measly 5 minutes! What we get is very nice, but where's the beef? (All of the video-based extras are presented in full screen and 2.0 stereo, with no optional subtitles or captioning included.)

Rounding out the extras are some fairly good production notes and filmographies, plus the film's original theatrical trailer in anamorphic widescreen and 2.0 surround, plus an additional spot for The Pianist.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

There are no real ROM extras here, just an custom interface embedded with basic DVD controls and weblinks to various Universal and related websites.

Parting Thoughts