awesomeredhead:

I really wanted to like this film. I really did. I love Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid both and I truly looked forward to their performances in what sounded like a great film, but this was just boring. Boring is really the only word that comes to mind when I think of this movie now. After watching it, I remember trying to really summon up something great about it, but all I could recall was Julianne's annoying voice, Dennis Quaid's outburst and Dennis Haysbert's second-rate acting; do something, Dennis! Anything! I've seen much better performances in a high school play than what I witnessed with this film. Nothing positive for me to report. 2 stars. 3/31/09

1d56bcdd85:

This movie left me out in the cold beside the fact that Julianne Moore received great accolade for her role as the stereotype Connecticut housewife, Cathy Whitaker. I have to say Cathy is the character that keeps my attention, since the others are rather forgetable. Set in the late 50s, this story is colored by the racial struggles and has interesting to say about American society in pre Civil Rights movements.

KitCarruthers:

A highly unusual, stylized homage to Douglas Sirk whose greatest strength is its self-consciousness. Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid both give career best performances, and the loose, uncomfortably realistic ending, which might feel unsatisfactory to some, resonates long after the movies over. Heartbreaking and -- remarkably, given the films strict adherence to the conventions of 1950s melodrama -- almost disturbingly real.

mlue:

Don't think that this one is going to go down easily. Running like a faultline along the entire movie's running time is tension that is a direct result of 1950's social strictures. If you came here for Moore then you're probably going to be satisfied. In particular, I think she was uniquely well suited to play Cathy, a woman who is slowly destroyed by the consequences of homosexuality and a subdued yet potent type of racism particular to North Eastern towns eager to distinguish themselves from their more banal southern counter parts, while clinging to the facade that defined her era. I cannot help but feel that the movie plays like a glimpse into the fall of a woman, with objectivity indicative of the acceptance of the cause of such terrifying experiences as being something inherent in humanity - it accuses the era as the perpetrator of such evils only at a first glance, in truth it points at us all.

mabell3368:

Hard to believe this received four academy award nominations. This movie fell victim to its own ambition. The producers said they wanted to make a film in the style of the melodramas of the fifties, but with 21st century sensibilities. The sets and the costumes and the brilliant color pallette all hit their marks. However, the script seemed stilted and the acting stiff, at least in the early stages. By the time the emotional land mines were encountered, the film ran a little more true. Now to the story. Apparently, in the fifties, a white woman being friends with a black man, even in the Yankee north, was more scandalous than finding out your husband is attracted to men. The irony of Kathy (Julianne Moore) finding someone "outside" the situation to confide in, thereby bringing him "inside" was not lost on this viewer. But because that outsider was her gardener, Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), everyone in the town reacts with disdain. Even Kathy's best friend, Eleanor (Patricia Clarkson) turns away at the news that she has befriended a black man. The prejudice is not confined to the whites, however as the persecution that Raymond experiences from his own people ultimately provides the obstacle that cannot be overcome. I had hoped that those days were long gone, but this current election season seems to indicate that we have not yet fully achieved MLK's dream. A good, solid film, just not great.

79c3c281a2:

Good story. Recreates the 50's a little TOO well, it's often distracting. Racism is the major issue, homosexuality is a minor one (to make it clear, since promotional material implies otherwise).

Supercords:

Really liked the retro feel of this movie. The acting was great too, especially from Julianne Moore. A little depressing for my taste though. Rating: B