All That Heaven Allows Movie Review

Whether we know it at the time or realize it later, life seems to provide exactly what we need. Problem is, blessings that find us unprepared can easily slip through our fingers. Sound like an old story? Well, actually, it is. Originally released by Universal in 1955, All That Heaven Allows explores one woman’s struggle to accept a love that threatens to turn her life upside down.

Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is an attractive, wealthy New England widow who falls for her much younger gardener Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson). Though she is sure of her love for him, Ms. Scott turns back on plans to remarry after her friends and children Kay and Ned (Gloria Talbott and William Reynolds) express reservations. Kirby may be handy with his hands, but Scott is devastated by the small town gossip and her children’s bitter rebuff of her newfound love.

Director Douglas Sirk brought Wyman and Hudson back together after working with them in Magnificent Obsession. While the stars deliver performances in Heaven that are graceful enough to carry the film, the rest of this love story just sort of, um, lies there.

A final note is worth mentioning. Though it was obviously intended without innuendo, Hudson’s line about having some bad luck while pheasant hunting is amusingly ironic: "I just can’t seem to shoot straight anymore."