I don’t recall a film that divided critical response from audience response quite so vastly as Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven, his loose remake of the Douglas Sirk classic All That Heaven Allows. If you hated this movie, you weren’t alone, but if you’re a film critic, chances are you put it on last year’s top-10 list.

It certainly seems fitting to give the DVD a plug, seeing as we just lost Sirk’s favourite actor, Robert Stack, who died last week at 84. I loved the way Haynes reworked some of Sirk’s most prominent themes (race and class) and introduced some new ones (most notably homosexuality). Haynes’ commentary is eloquent and intelligent; he’s one of the sharpest writer-directors I’ve ever had the good luck to interview. I don’t know about recommending a second look to those who hated it the first time around though. I suggested this to a friend who replied that she’d had her fill of watching the paint dry the first time around and didn’t want to go through it again.

» Matthew Hays