Far From Heaven

"Far From Heaven" was a very interesting film, particularly in terms of the subject of gender roles. Due to the preceding lecture, I found myself asking whether or not the portrayal of women was progressive. Cathy is the perfect wife and mother. She stays at the house throughout the day and welcomes home her working husband at night. When her perfect life hits a bump in the road and she finds her husband cheating on her with a man, everything is shaken up. She goes to therapy to try to turn him around and bring things back to the way they were, but it's hard to tell if this act is solely because she longs for his love again, of if she cares primarily about her reputation. When she throws the party at their house, she tries to paint a picture of the ideal American family and is clearly thrilled to receive compliments about what a perfect couple she and her husband are. Based on all of this criteria, the film is far from progressive. It simply displays a female doing a "woman's" job and then attempting to cover up her imperfections. On the contrary, the plot point with her African American gardener is definitely progressive. Here, Cathy stands up for what she believes in and doesn't conform to the differing opinions of those around her. However, this, too, turns around when the public finds out a bit more than Cathy wished, and she cuts Raymond out of her life until the end, when she is lost and alone and decides she wants him again. Because of all of the film's many layers and twists and turns, I would almost say that the portrayal of women is ambiguous, but when it all comes down to it, I really do think that Cathy is a stereotype and that nothing about her, in the end, is at all powerful.