Jan. 09, 2003 - 5:50 pm

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All That Heaven Allows (1955)

what? this isn't on the AFI Passions list? that's amazing. this is a really good love story. i first heard about this in my German film class in late 2001 when we were studying the work of Douglas Sirk. but i also kept seeing this one on the National Film Registry list as well, so that sort of kept it on the top of my mind.

it's weird, whenever i think of Douglas Sirk, i always automatically thing of his birth name, Detlef Sierck, and the fact that he changed it in order to fit in with American audiences. i probably would've done the same if i was a German living in America around that time. terrible that we have to do those types of things sometimes in order to survive.

this film stars Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman as a couple in love. the big drama though is that Jane Wyman is the widow of a rich successful businessman, and Rock Hudson is her gardner. she's still going to parties and everything with all the snobs of the town, and the fact that she falls in love with her significantly younger gardner does not sit well with him. it doesn't sit well with her adolescent children either, and she comes to realize that even she is not invulnerable to the opinion of those that she has put so much value on for so long. in the end she has to choose between true love and the responsibilty to those that care about her.

this film is very well thought out. much more so than it seems to be at first glance. when i started watching it, i thought it was going to turn out to be like a harlequin romance novel or something. it has all the earmarks of that. but the performances and direction help you as a viewer to be pulled in and ask yourself the same questions that Jane Wyman is having to ask herself. what really matters? do success and the praise of society really matter, or is it just what's in your heart that matters? what if your ruined reputation destroyed the lives of your young children? what would you do?

good questions, and therefore a good movie. i was, however, slightly bothered by some of the goofy visual elements that were added to increase the feeling of romance. the roaring fire by the obviously fake ice surrounding each window pane, and then the deer that is always walking around right outside the house in the snow. it even comes up to the window and eats out of a pail when Rock Hudson is nearby. so i guess if you don't mind the goofiness too much, it's worth watching.