Watching this movie is like eating steak and eggs for breakfast. So utterly 1950’s melodrama, right down to the soundtrack.

The color palate, however, is more the way we remember the 1950’s in our romanticized haze than than the movies of the 1950’s actually were. It’s lovelier—and more deliberate, I’d suspect—than anything from that era.

Aside from its spectacular beauty, this movie had a lot of valuable things to say.

The sickening normality of American home life in the 50’s in successfully contrasted with the succession of taboo problems that complicate the lives of the characters. It makes for an extremely interesting plot.

The picture-perfect 50’s housewife is thrown into a spiral of choas that changes her way of looking at the world. The woman discovers her husband is cheating on her…with a man. She then falls in love with her black gardener, which sends even more rumors flying about.

Most, if not all of the performances in this film are well-done (even Dennis Quaid managed to be decent for once).

This film may be slightly languid, but the lack of speed matches the subject and still manages to be interesting.