Far from Heaven

Mrs Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) is the equivalent of the 1950s super mom - running the household for her busy executive husband and two young children with the help of her African American maid Sybil. She has a busy social circle, doing good deeds for the community, all whilst being impeccably dressed and coiffured. But this nuclear family is not what it seems as the husband (Dennis Quaid) has a secret passion that cannot be quelled. A friendship with the gardener (Dennis Haysbert), an African American single father, develops into something deeper for Cathy but society deems their acquaintance as simply unacceptable. A film about relationships and society where people’s desires and needs are often at odds with a repressed moral code/sense of ethics, especially in 1950s America. Written and directed by Todd Haynes, with music by Elmer Bernstein. Highly stylised art direction and costume design appropriate to the period. Cast includes Viola Davis, Patricia Clarkson, Celia Weston.