Sunday, December 29, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

FILM: 'Far From Heaven' is a powerful melodrama far beyond Hollywood's typical weepies

Desperate to put a happy face on their strained marriage, Cathy (Julianne Moore) and Frank (Dennis Quaid) Whitaker try to maintain the happy-couple facade in "Far From Heaven."

Stuck in the middle with you.

Every year, Las Vegas movie buffs sit on the sidelines as critics from coast to coast laud movies that haven't yet reached the remote outpost of Neon Nirvana.

And every year, this humble critic squirms in platform-release purgatory as No. 1-with-a-bullet contenders become ineligible for annual Review-Journal accolades because they won't hit Las Vegas until January.

Some years prove more frustrating than others.

This year, for example, I'm tempted to toss the rule book aside and cite such superb works as "The Hours," "The Pianist" and "The Quiet American" -- all of which are, thankfully, coming here soon.

I've already seen them, and they easily rank among the best of 2002's cinematic crop.

But fair is fair. If you couldn't see them in 2002, I shouldn't write about them in 2002.

Still, that leaves more than a hundred movies to consider. Alas, many of them weren't worth the time it took to watch them -- or the brain cells I lost in the process.

As for the few that were, these 10 will remain in my brain -- and, sometimes, even in my heart -- long after the screen has faded to black.

1. "Far From Heaven" -- It may look and play like a classic Hollywood weepie, but director Todd Haynes simultaneously salutes and inverts the '50s work of director Douglas Sirk with this audacious and emotionally wrenching melodrama, putting a contemporary spin on the Eisenhower-era setting while creating a timeless portrait of people trying to find a way to live while they're dying inside.

2. "Gangs of New York" -- Director Martin Scorsese's epic account of New York's (and, by extension, America's) furious growing pains chronicles the violent 19th-century upheavals that set the nation's melting pot boiling, exploring classic themes of sin and redemption and the Grand Canyon-sized chasm between America's promise and its reality. Hardly perfect, but perfectly powerful.

3. "Bloody Sunday" -- More strife in the streets, as writer-director Paul Greengrass engineers a documentary-style re-creation of a civil rights march in Northern Ireland that ended in a massacre, focusing the conflict through the eyes of four characters and using hand-held cameras to bring us into the heart -- and heartbreak -- of the carnage.

4. "Minority Report" -- One of the brainiest, brawniest, most compelling movies of director Steven Spielberg's storied career provides an unsettling glimpse of a grim future world -- one that's a lot closer than we think -- full of bright shiny surfaces and ominous shadows, as Big Brother's unblinking, unforgiving eye tracks everyone's every move.

5. "Spirited Away" -- Master Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki ("Princess Mononoke") concocts another dazzlingly innovative visual trip, employing an eye-popping array of animation styles -- flat-faced animé, beautiful watercolor effects, sequences resembling Japanese woodcuts -- to explore classic fantasy themes.

6. "Insomnia" -- "Memento" director Christopher Nolan scores again, albeit in more conventional fashion, with a haunting remake of a Norwegian thriller that delivers both cat-and-mouse suspense and a gripping depiction of a driven detective's descent into moral and psychological purgatory.

7. "Mostly Martha" -- If the phrase "German comedy" sounds like an oxymoron, this tasty treat about a workaholic restaurant chef who changes her recipe for life mixes exact measures of humor, pathos, romance and drama to deliver a delicious and heartwarming cinematic feast.

8. "Sunshine State" -- Writer-director John Sayles ("Lone Star") visits a Florida town in transition for another trademark character drama, following a host of wounded souls on their way up -- and down -- the ladder of life. As usual, Sayles' insight into human interaction makes the visit worthwhile.

9. "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" -- Every critic's entitled to one from-the-heart self-indulgence; this return to a beloved galaxy long ago and far away blends breakthrough digital technology and popcorn-powered storytelling to set pulses racing and offer reassurance that the Force will be with us ... always. (P.S. It's even more fun in leaner, meaner "Imax Experience" form.)

10. "13 Conversations About One Thing" -- The one thing is happiness, and writer-director Jill Sprecher explores its maddening elusiveness in a hauntingly elliptical tale interweaving the fates of five New Yorkers, all of whom discover the pain -- and promise -- of its pursuit.