This exquisite evocation of the 1950s tear-jerkers of director Douglas Sirk (it borrows heavily from the Jane Wyman-Rock Hudson vehicle All That Heaven Allows) is gorgeously designed, stunningly photographed, ravishingly scored and beautifully acted. Julianne Moore plays a housewife in 1957 Connecticut who, reeling from the discovery of husband Dennis Quaid's homosexuality, develops an attraction to her black gardener (Dennis Haysbert). This perfectly pitched synthesis of Sirkian themes - middle-class conformity, hypocrisy and self-delusion - is no flamboyant camp-fest. Nor is it simply a parody of an arch period style, employed to hint at forbidden desires that were left unspoken in Wyman's day. Without a trace of intrusive irony, lush images illustrate a taboo-breaking story without suffering from the restrictions of that time. Because it deals with sexual, feminist and racial issues that are still valid, this immaculate melodrama works as both a barbed comment on current American values and a sumptuous period piece.

In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife's life is upended by a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in society.