#1
Posted: 6/12/05 at 8:11pm
When this film came out last year, I wouldn't plunk down my ten bucks, no way no how. But it's all over cable now, and I'm always pulled in by some key scene, and can't turn it off. Try it. K. Dunst and Maggie Gylenthal are quite wonderful, and it has an extraordinary supporting cast of stage folk like Marian Seldes and Mary Beth Peil, all of whom do subtle work.
The central story about these 1953 co-eds is rendered in very by-the-numbers totally soapy terms (you can see that the script was revised many times to shape all the mini-arcs, and in particular, to give the Roberts character "dimension", i.e. romance, a dramatic suspense line resolved only in the final moments, etc., when the girls problems are always more compelling and can't help but upstage her.) But the underlying feminist issue that's dramatized about a role for women beyond housewife doesn't feel cliche, and actually has real weight by the end. Julie Stiles has a scene that truly surprises for its avoidance of obvious turns. And Roberts, who bores me in about everything since ERIN B, pulls off the semi-Jean Brodie thing, and even lets herself look pale and rather unattractive in key moments.
If anyone else avoided it as I did, especially 1950s junkies (you FAR FROM HEAVEN-ites!), don't miss the exceptionally exquite period details. In fact, if we lived in a world that still had double features, this film and FAR FROM HEAVEN would be a terrific one.
The central story about these 1953 co-eds is rendered in very by-the-numbers totally soapy terms (you can see that the script was revised many times to shape all the mini-arcs, and in particular, to give the Roberts character "dimension", i.e. romance, a dramatic suspense line resolved only in the final moments, etc., when the girls problems are always more compelling and can't help but upstage her.) But the underlying feminist issue that's dramatized about a role for women beyond housewife doesn't feel cliche, and actually has real weight by the end. Julie Stiles has a scene that truly surprises for its avoidance of obvious turns. And Roberts, who bores me in about everything since ERIN B, pulls off the semi-Jean Brodie thing, and even lets herself look pale and rather unattractive in key moments.
If anyone else avoided it as I did, especially 1950s junkies (you FAR FROM HEAVEN-ites!), don't miss the exceptionally exquite period details. In fact, if we lived in a world that still had double features, this film and FAR FROM HEAVEN would be a terrific one.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
