Review of All That Heaven Allows (1955) by Art S — 27 Nov 2012
The scope of this melodrama may seem small -- after all it centers exclusively on rich widow Jane Wyman and her loneliness and then love for a younger blue-collar man, Rock Hudson -- but Douglas Sirk still brings the strings and sweeps us from joy to tears.
And who could miss the explicit critique of American society here? From the keeping up with the Jones mentality and its wicked gossip to the bedrock values underlying the need to succeed financially, Sirk rejects them all.
Hudson is adamantly his own man, not interested in money or social status, and he is younger, freer, and therefore rejected by Wyman's family and bitchy circle. Fassbinder remade this in Germany using an inter-racial relationship and an even wider age gap, but of course he was able to do explicitly what Sirk could only do more subtly (with good use of framing, colored lighting, and shadows to underscore his themes).
Like "Imitation of Life" and "Written on the Wind", this is a much more cutting film than 1950s audiences may have realized.
This review of All That Heaven Allows (1955) was written by Art S on 27 Nov 2012.
All That Heaven Allows has generally received very positive reviews.
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