Year of Release: 2002Country of Origin: USA, France
Director: Todd Haynes
Cast: Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson
Plot outline: In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife faces a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in the outside world (IMDb).
In doing research on homosexuality for the movie, Todd Haynes discovered that the '50s weren't as repressive as he first thought. "There were breakthroughs in the late '40s and in some writings, doctors were saying that this was not a sickness and that you really can't change it. So it was actually more progressive than I thought," he says. The movie's three main characters are all oppressed yet Cathy's suffrage is the most extreme. Frank can hide beneath the guise of heterosexuality and Raymond can move to another state but there's no way for Cathy to conceal her gender. Haynes begs that we apply his latest "woman's picture" to the world today. Fifty years after the events depicted in this movie, do we treat blacks, gays and women much differently? Elmer Bernstein's score punctuates key moments with expert precision, complimenting the tone of the characters' voices and the traumas written on their faces. When Frank enters an underground gay bar, the camera evokes the character's fear with a splash of menacing greens and muted reds. More remarkable, though, is how the movie seemingly loses its color when things begin to go wrong for Cathy. Haynes seemingly suggests that there is no need for labels (gay and straight, black and white, inside and outside) if people are willing to listen to others. Cathy is drawn to Frank not because of his race or because of her own sense of not-being but because he is willing to listen to her voice. Here is a movie of great humanism that applies as much to the '50s as it does to the world today and everyone who inhabits it. The movie's final shot evokes a changing season and perhaps a changing cultural tide. (EG)
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
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