(rated PG-13, 107 mins.)
It’s 1950s Connecticut when life is “Leave It To Beaver” meets “Mayberry RFD” for Kathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) and Frank Whitaker (Dennis Quaid). Or at least it’s supposed to be, until one day their cocktails meets society pages lifestyle is challenged by a marital secret and racial tensions from the outside world. Frank is a top salesman at Megnatech while Kathy is the quintessential apron-wearing brownie-baking mom during a time when divorce is unheard of and twin beds are the only way to show sex on television. Both Quaid and Moore never break from these perfectly cast roles delivering deep and complex characters. Reflective of the naïve times of the 50s and so true to its era, Director Todd (“Safe”) Haynes, reteams with Moore moving into the big arena with this Oscar quality story, performances and camerawork, that makes for an almost perfect movie about the dynamics of bigotry. In the end one discovers that trying to be perfect by keeping up with the Jones’s, may leave you with nothing, including happiness.
