FAR FROM HEAVEN is leaving film critics gasping in awe and the score by the legendary Elmer Bernstein is being singled out as a masterpiece.
"Capped by the crowning glory of Elmer Bernstein's emotionally and orchestrally lush score, the film is a jewel-like operation on every technical level. Its visual sumptuousness seduces from the opening frame to the last - bookended by gorgeous period-style credits - but never overwhelms the action." - Variety -
... and from The Toronto Star review of the film's Toronto Film Festival premiere:
"As for the score by the 80-year old Elmer Bernstein, surely this is the sound of paradise."
Panning gracefully from the golden leaves of a New England fall, the camera reveals the pristine streets and cheerful storefronts of the all American Eisenhower-era community of Hartford, Connecticut in 1957, where women with mushroom-cloud hairdos sip afternoon daiquiris served by their domestics. FAR FROM HEAVEN features Julianne Moore as Cathy Whitaker, the Jane Wyman-esque suburban matron who is losing her husband Frank (Dennis Quaid) to passionate manly pursuits and her heart to her Negro gardener (Dennis Haysbert). FAR FROM HEAVEN addresses the perpetually hotbed issues of sexuality and race in America with a gracefully controlled grasp of generic mechanics that does honor to the great German-born Hollywood melodramatist Douglas Sirk (Written On The Wind, All That Heaven Allows) while confirming his enduringly subversive vitality.
A truly breathtaking cinematography and especially for Elmer Bernstein's absolutely magnificent score.
