Montage sequence is used throughout the film of All That Heaven Allows to construct the central conflicts of characters, including conflicts between characters, conflicts between character and society and within themselves, particularly the clash between societal expectations and individual desires. It presents the different worlds that characters live in and strong class contradictions. The use of short-cutting and dissolve of frames take great lead of the path and rhythm of story and emotional turmoil of characters.

The director creates color symbolism in montage, which appears from beginning to the end. Cary’s world is often portrayed with cold and sterile colors, while Ron’s world is filled with vibrant and warm tones. At the first party, the frame cuts into the scene when Howard and Cary dance into a space where they are alone, with the warm light behind them and the cold, bluish light in front of them. Then the camera follows them when they move into the dark cold light where Howard forces Cary to kiss. This indicates that there is no affection and enthusiasm between the two. When Cary came home from the party and stood in the room with a dark and blue color tone, the camera dollies in towards the warm light spotting on the flowers, forming a close-up and then dissolved to another scene with the same warm-orange tone, introducing Ron. This continuity of montage of warm color in the transition suggests that Ron’s life and himself is always in bright and positive attitude, that Ron’s intrusion becomes a ray of light in Cary’s boring and lonely life. 

In the scene where the two meet at Ron’s cabin, Cary is under the pressure and constraint of moral values, and her sweet love is quickly replaced by cold pain. She turns from the warm yellow fireplace into the dreary blue, and the side light casts a line of light and shade on her body, symbolizing her inner pain as the collision of two color patches reveals her inner conflict. The color coming from the window contrasts strongly with the indoor, while facing the cold color represents that Cary is confronting the conflict between her chase for true love and social conventions. 

Parallel scene appears at the end the film, which when Alida helped Cary close the window, the use of the window prop helped them to block out the blue light outside, underlining that the influence of external comments are shut down and the obstruction of other people’s opinions on Cary were no longer bothering their love affair, so that her world was really just her and Ron each other. The last scene cuts into an overall tone of orange and warmth, indicating a happy ending.

Montage also appears frequently in other parts of the film. When Cary’s son gives her the TV as Christma present, the camera cross-cuts in at a fast pace between medium close-up shots of Cary’s face and medium shots that glance through other movements of her son and daughter and the delivery man. This creates the Montage that everyone else is soaked in the atmosphere of Christmas and were not paying attention to Cary’s depression, while only Cary was alone in grief. The camera then shoots the mirror with Cary’s reflection looking at herself in it, zooming in to show her deeper reflection and thinking of herself and her sacrifices. The television itself serves as a motif that shackles her freedom to chase love, and kidnaps her with so-called morality. This look into the mirror action displays her awakening self consciousness, which then the frame fades-out into black, leaving suspense and thinking to the audience.

After the first time Cary came back from the cabin, there was an interesting scene that shoots the trees while dissolves to the same tree but with less leaves. The editing links shots by close graphic similarities, making a graphic match, indicating the passage of time and replacement, but in an artistic and romantic way.

There were other editing in the film which as a whole keeps the pace and rhythm, also conveying the characters’ emotions and the film’s underlying themes.