Far From Heaven

Starring: Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis

Directed by: Todd Haynes

RS: 4of 4 Stars

2002 Drama

Last year's best chick flick (forget The Hours) gets the A treatment on a DVD capturing the burnished beauty that camera wiz Ed Lachman gives this tale of a 1950s housewife (Julianne Moore) with a gay husband (Dennis Quaid). Director Todd Haynes conjures emotional truth out of soap opera. Here's that rare time when the DVD extras -- from a breakdown of the cocktail-party scene to no-bull talk from Haynes, Moore, Lachman and composer Elmer Bernstein, whose score was surely 2002's best -- really are a bonus.

PETER TRAVERS
(March 25, 2003)