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THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS Rating:   Director: Rose Troche Producer: Dorothy Berwin and Christine Vachon Writer: Rose Troche, based on the book of short stories by A.M. Homes Director of Photography: Enrique Chediak Cast: Glenn Close, Dermot Mulroney, Patricia Clarkson, Jessica Campbell, Moira Kelly, Joshua Jackson Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew |
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Review by: Dan
Tester
3/2/03
The suburbs are one scary place. At least they are in the movies. I grew up in a small Wisconsin suburb, and it seemed like the most normal place on earth (sometimes frustratingly so). I went about my younger days naively thinking life was wonderful and innocent, not realizing the dysfunctional wretchedness that must have surrounded me. The Safety of Objects is the latest in a long line of "screwed up surburbia" films to have trickled out of Hollywood in the last quarter century or so, and while it is far from the best of the bunch, it is surely one of the most curious.
The central figure in this large ensemble character piece, or at least the one that seems to be the cinematic glue, is Paul Gold (Joshua Jackson), a much-loved teenager trapped in a coma. His mother (Glenn Close) has become emotionally shut off from the rest of her family, spending all her waking hours doting on her poor comatose boy. Her teenage daughter (Jessica Campbell) retains quiet hatred toward her mother for her lack of attention, and her husband (Robert Klein) has become so ineffectual to her, he only has about two appearances in the whole film. (Why did they even cast Klein here, such a strange choice to begin with? His name appearing in the opening credits actually intrigued me, but he amounts to nothing more than scenery here in just a couple brief moments.)
Rounding out the rest of the cast are the neighbors, including the lonely divorced mother (Patricia Clarkson), the emasculated young husband (Dermot Mulroney) and his distracted wife (Moira Kelly), the bored middle-aged housewife (Mary Kay Place) and other typical suburbanite types. There is also the creepy gardener (Timothy Olyphant) with his eye on one of the young neighborhood boys, a radio contest requiring contestants to keep their hands on a new car for days upon end, and a young boy struggling with his sexual identity who has conversations with his sister's dolls. And when I say "conversations," there is nothing subtle about it. The doll speaks in a sultry voice, and constantly tries to seduce the young boy (at one point lifting her dress to expose actual pubic hair) and the result of these scenes caused stunned laughter throughout the theater. Sometimes abstract scenes like this can work like a charm, but in this case, I can't remember seeing anything so laughably distracting since Spike Lee allowed that dog to talk like John Turturro in Summer of Sam.
The first half of The Safety of Objects is very interesting, and I found myself drawn to most of these characters and their goofy lives. But it is the final half hour or so that is just too self-indulgent for my taste. There is just not enough significance in the end to justify the film, especially when considering how well-tread this territory is by now. My favorite subplot involved Mulroney's beaten-down lawyer as he is passed over for a promotion at work, and simply walks out without really letting anyone know he has quit, including his family. "I wanted to make a statement," he tells his secretary on Monday morning, and she responds, "These aren't people who recognize statements. If you don't come back, they will just replace you." This was an interesting scenario, investigating the role of "men" existing within structures, both familial and professional, in which they are seemingly expendable. But unfortunately this subplot, as well as all the others, beeline their way toward each other in such an obvious way that it is ultimately just too anti-climactic and easy.
I very much enjoyed Patricia Clarkson's sad, lonely divorcee (she has really made a comeback in the last year with this and Far From Heaven, and I hope we see more of her), but ultimately her character just doesn't have much purpose. The scenes between Glenn Close and her comatose son are touching at first, but it is their final moment together that is so obtuse and out of left field that, while director Troche seemed to be trying to bring closure to this storyline with a startle, it really just opens up a whole new can of worms that is not dealt with at all.
The Safety of Objects strives to be the equivalent of Robert Altman's Short Cuts and Todd Solondz' Happiness, two of the most accomplished films of this genre. But Short Cuts and Happiness are two films that are vastly different in scope and content; the former being poetic and epic, the latter simply bizarre and disturbing. Director Troche ultimately can't seem to decide if she wants to be Altman or Solondz here, and the film's ultimate failure results from the fact that it awkwardly falls somewhere in-between.
But as always, it is only one man's opinion.
(An IFC Films release. Opens in New York and Los Angeles on March 7, 2003. Expands to more cities at later dates.)
(Read the interview with Dermot Mulroney and Jessica Campbell)
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