WilliamJones's Full Review: All That Heaven Allows
"Time, if nothing else, will vindicate Douglas Sirk..." - Andrew Sarris, from his 1968 book American Cinema
A German immigrant who fled the Nazis in the 1930s, Douglas Sirk is best remembered for having directed a series of glossy, Technicolor melodramas in the 1950s. While these romantic tearjerkers were popular with moviegoers, the critics often dismissed them. Sirk, by all accounts, was an underrated director. Time, however, has proven a favorable ally; and his influence can be seen in any number of latter-day films (let's note, too, the prescience of Andrew Sarris). Most recently, of course, there was Far From Heaven with Julianne Moore. Before that, however, Rainer Werner Fassbinder paid explicit homage to him with his 1974 Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (a crossbreed of this film and Sirk's Imitation Of Life).
Sirk's oeuvre has been steadily re-evaluated over the years. Today, many of his films are admired for their sly, subversive quality (All That Heaven Allows included) and Sirk's ability to inject deeper meaning.
All That Heaven Allows is Sirk at or near his best. The story, at least on its surface, is fairly standard stuff. Cary Scott (Jane Wyman), an attractive, rich widow in her forties, falls in love with, and subsequently seeks to marry, her much younger gardener (Rock Hudson). The problem: her country club friends disapprove of the relationship. This, in and of itself, wouldn't be a tremendous obstacle were it not for the fact that her college-age children object as well.
The soap-opera plot is easily explained and something many women over a certain age will strongly relate to. The plot serves as an exploration of the uptight social values of the 1950s and prefigures the Feminist Movement and Sexual Revolution of the Sixties.
While all this is of some interest, what I find most striking about All That Heaven Allows is the film's style. This is a meticulously shot movie with eye-catching compositions, flamboyant lighting and complex color schemes. In an interview with the online indieWIRE, "Far From Heaven" director Todd Haynes comments: "Many movies today are dumbed down, in terms of color—a whole movie will be honeycomb gold colors if it's set in the past or all icy blue if it's a suspense thriller." All That Heaven Allows, however, isn't like that. Sirk doesn't employ an all-over color pattern here; rather he often combines both warm and cool colors within the same frame. This to reflect the characters (chiefly Cary's) conflicting emotional states.
The entire movie is visually appealing. Take, for example, the title sequence: a bird's eye view of Stoningham, the (fictitious?) New England town where Cary resides. It doesn't get more ideally American than this (quiet, peaceful neighborhood in autumn) as Sirk takes the requisite time to show us the town's geography, something too often overlooked in movies. The leisurely-paced establishing shot sets the tone for the rest of the movie, as Sirk's approach is a formal one.
Visual metaphors (symbols) are introduced: a clock tower and a pile of smoldering leaves in the street. A somber sense of time passing is a recurring motif.
We soon discover our protagonist is a lonely person who eagerly anticipates her grown-up children's weekend visits but otherwise has "nothing but time."
A potential suitor arrives in the form of Harvey (Conrad Nagel), a silver-haired bachelor who's obviously older than Cary and "acts his age." In his "remarkably civilized" way he proposes marriage, offering simple companionship minus any romance ("But then you'd hardly want that sort of thing"). Is it any wonder Cary turns an eye toward Ron Kirby, the handsome gardener?
A trip to Kirby's place out in the woods finds the two poking around in his late father's "old mill." It's dusty and full of cobwebs but there's a fireplace and Cary sees it as a fixer-upper—a potential home when Ron finally meets the right girl ("Or do you think you're not susceptible?").
There's much made of a Wedgewood teapot with missing pieces ("I just love Wedgewood," Cary tells him). On a subsequent visit, after their relationship has cemented a bit, Cary will delight in the fact that the teapot has been restored; Ron has found all the pieces even though "it took days and days." The teapot, it seems to me, is symbolic of her. So when Ron subsequently asks for her hand in marriage, she—like it—has been mended, made whole. When fear and doubt enter Cary's mind, however ("It's absurd to think of marriage") she will accidentally knock the teapot off its table; both are broken once again.
The on-again, off-again relationship hits a bumpy road when false rumors are circulated around Stoningham by the local gossip (Jacqueline de Wit). Cary's daughter (Gloria Talbott) is hit the hardest by the fallout, which causes Cary to make a "noble sacrifice." For Christmas, daughter and son give mom a television set to keep her company, but that's hardly an equitable trade-off.
In addition to Russell Metty's beautiful photography, with its painterly eye toward color and space, All That Heaven Allows wins points for the careful consideration paid to costume and décor. Performances are mostly first-rate: Jane Wyman as the focal point hits all the right notes and supporting roles (Agnes Moorehead, among others) are well filled. The heart-tugging Frank Skinner score, punctuated with plaintive, classical piano pieces (Franz Liszt, I take it) is also memorable.
The film of course has its "camp" qualities. Mostly this is related to Rock Hudson although Sirk, in general, appeals to gay filmmakers (in addition to the aforementioned Haynes and Fassbinder, other directors who count themselves as fans include Pedro Almodóvar and John Waters).
In that vein, favorite lines include Rock Hudson telling Mick, his Thoreau-quoting buddy, while the two are out hunting, he "can't shoot straight anymore." There's also this exchange between Ron and Cary concerning their relationship being very simple insofar as they are not afraid:
Cary: "That's what Mick learned from you, isn't it?"
Ron: "No. You can't learn that from anybody. Mick discovered for himself that he had to make his own decisions—that he had to be a man."
Cary: "And you want me to be a man."
Ron: "Only in that one way."
Movies come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and packages. We all have our favorite genres and tend to frequent certain sections of the video store. All That Heaven Allows may or may not appeal to you. I can only tell you it works, and on many different levels. It gets an unwavering recommendation; it's well worth a look.
A wealthy and attractive New England widow stirs up small town gossip and the wrath of her children when she falls in love with her sexy, much younger...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.