Far From Heaven (2002)

Ever see one of those 1950s melodramas where every thing and every person is impossibly perfect? Where mom, dad, son, daughter, house, clothes and mannerisms, even the streets, were scrubbed clean of any blemish? In 2002's "Far From Heaven," director/writer Todd Haynes takes that paradise-like blueprint used in so many WASP films and smashes the dream with notions that "didn't exist" in 1950s America as far as most good patriot consumers were concerned: homosexuality, race discrimination, racial violence and steep economic divides.

I won't give away any plot details except to say the film focuses on three people: WASPs Frank and Cathy Whitaker (Dennis Quaid and Julianne Moore) and African-American Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysebert).

Haynes shows us a portrait of America that must be closer to the truth than what was presented in films of the era. We know the starched clean, perfect America never existed despite the lies (or false memories) of many of our parents and grandparents and a white, straight, Christian-led government. The dream -- or blatant lie -- was the byproduct of an America in love with itself and its potential, one that gladly ignored and denied anyone who spoke different.

It's an unsettling film for sure, and despite its somber ending, "Far From Heaven" celebrates freedom and the smashing of barriers that separate us. Now, that's an American value that can be celebrated. One of 2002's top five best films. Just awesome. A