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Directed by: Todd Haynes Starring: Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson FFH is supposedly influenced by the work of Douglas Sirk, which I have never seen, so perhaps I'm at a disadvantage here. Certainly the cinematography and design on this film are very well done, but I wasn't blown away by it. Moore plays yet another meek housewife, similar (but not identical) to her other role in a much better Haynes film, Safe. I thought it was a fairly nice picture, but I found the message to be as outdated as the timeframe of the movie. It just did very little for me. RATING: 3 PROS: good photography, nice message CONS: seems behind the times; preaching to the choir ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0297884/
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Jan 27, 2005 00:28
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As a confirmed Sirk-ophile, I had really high hopes for this when I first heard about it, but I thought it was a really big disappointment. The costumes, sets, camera placement, and everything else stylistically were all there, but in the end this seemed like a pretty hollow tribute, and an inferior remake of All that Heaven Allows in comparison to Fassbinder's Ali. The acting is pretty strong, but the characters aren't interesting, and the scenarios are weaker versions of those in Heaven, albiet more relevant to contemporary society. Melodrama, despite its relative benality to most audiences, is an incredibly hard genre to succeed in, especially now that it is a dead genre, and this movie proves that once again. The best part about Sirk's films was how over the top they went (Sirk is probably the one director who can never go to far), but this seemed pretty boring in comparison to his smart, campy melodramas.
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Jan 27, 2005 01:11
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2.5 I like it more than Ali, but not that much more. I'll take the Rock Hudson flick over either of the reworkings of the story any day. When Haynes throws in some overly symbolic bit like the scarf it just seems like he's apeing Sirk instead of going over the top in his own right.
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Jan 27, 2005 08:03
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