Movies

A wife (Julianne Moore) in a wealthy Connecticut suburb in 1957 discovers her husband (Dennis Quaid) is homosexual. Secretly, she embarks on a relationship with her black gardener (Dennis Haysbert). In the Fourth Annual Village Voice Film Critics' Poll, the film was voted the best picture of 2002.A devastatingly clever device: director Todd Haynes has shot the story in the lush colours and style of a melodramatic Douglas Sirk 'women's picture'. But all the grace notes in such films are ushered centre stage, and it becomes an acutely observed study of racial and sexual bigotry in 1950s America. Far From Heaven is a beautifully made, brilliantly thought through and genuinely moving piece of work.