Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Safety of Objects, The

EMAILPRINTIFC Films

Safety of Objects, The reviews
58
8.1 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Rose Troche
A.M. Homes (book)

Directed by: Rose Troche

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 7, 2003
DVD: October 14, 2003

Running Time: 121 minutes, Color

Origin: USA / UK

Summary

RATING: R for sexual content and language

Starring Glenn Close, Dermot Mulroney, Jessica Campbell, Patricia Clarkson, Joshua Jackson, Moira Kelly, Robert Klein, and Mary Kay Place

Over the course of four days, four suburban families will open up and lean on one another, sharing their burdens and joys, and help each other remember, it is the people we know and love - not the objects we own - that provide real hope and security to face whatever life throws at us. (IFC Films)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

Salon.com Laura Miller

All the acting in it is flawless, an overflowing handful of polished jewels.

Read Full Review >
80

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

This is not the easiest film in the world to untangle, but our attentions are soon rewarded.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Eddie Cockrell

A genuine and tangible fondness and respect for the characters and their eccentricities.

Read Full Review >
80

The New York Times Dana Stevens

With the help of an ensemble that is nearly flawless, she (Troche) assembles the damaged human elements of Ms. Homes's world with patience and precision, and more often than not chooses dry understatement over easy satire or obvious sentiment.

Read Full Review >
78

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

The terrific ensemble acting and Troche’s genuine, nonjudgmental interest in exploring the weird places wounded people go, both internally and externally, amount to an insulated but moving portrait of the real nuclear family.

Read Full Review >
75

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Eloquently adapted from the collection of A.M. Homes stories of the same title, Troche's film derives its voltage from the way it burrows to find that the connections within -- and among -- families are very much alive.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Troche is most interested in exploring the secret lives hidden inside freshly painted Colonials, and what she finds is that everyone's secret is exactly the same: a crushing inability to connect with the people closest to them.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Presented with such confidence, such care, that we love all of the characters, even if we don't like them.

Read Full Review >
75

USA Today Claudia Puig

The interwoven stories are haunting, but also darkly funny.

Read Full Review >
70

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

For all of Troche's skill and talent, The Safety of Objects (a splendid title) nevertheless tries to cover too much territory. In movies, as elsewhere, a little less sometimes can add up to a lot more.

Read Full Review >
70

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

A couple of unexpected revelations in the final act pack an emotional wallop that shifts the film (shot in clean, uncluttered takes) into the realm of old-fashioned tearjerker, but the tears are wholly earned.

Read Full Review >
67

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

The film paints a by now familiar picture of suburbia as a pit of dysfunction, though some nice dark-humored moments and generally fine performances make up for a lot.

Read Full Review >
67

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The disciplined performances play against schmaltz, and the casting is inspired.

Read Full Review >
63

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Ray Conlogue

It's a movie located in an interesting place, but without quite enough self-confidence really to inhabit it.

Read Full Review >
63

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The Safety of Objects doesn't carry the power of Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm," a similarly themed work about WASPS in crisis. Objects is too artificial, clunky with too many preposterous situations.

Read Full Review >
63

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Not a complete waste of time, but it doesn't make us FEEL the way better dramas do, and, in the end, it lacks the qualities that would make it memorable or powerful.

Read Full Review >
63

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The film leaves you dissatisfied, as though you'd just spent two hours with a menagerie of plastic white people.

Read Full Review >
60

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The result is not a quilt, just a succession of story snippets that keep interrupting one another.

Read Full Review >
58

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Outside of its star power, it reeks of indie film and doesn't hold much mainstream steam.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Although deft editing provides neat segues, "Safety" suffers from a case of too many dramas, too little time. Characters are given no chance to develop and, too often, their behavior turns on a dime, hurtling off into a parallel universe of extreme acts.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Troche's tone is so relentlessly, depressingly monotonous that the characters seem trapped in a narrow emotional range. They live out their miserable lives in one lachrymose sequence after another, and for us there is no relief.

Read Full Review >
50

TV Guide Ken Fox

Troche has bitten off quite a bit here, and it's too much for her to chew properly.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Flat and unconvincing.

Read Full Review >
50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The overall effect is imaginative but overambitious, though Troche unquestionably has cinematic talent.

Read Full Review >
40

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Although it has moments of charm and poignancy -- this is one of Glenn Close's best hours -- the scheme and scope of the movie are just too darned obvious.

Read Full Review >
40

Village Voice Laura Sinagra

Though agile edits keep things moving, in braiding several tales into one tight suburban tangle, character development takes more shortcuts than "Short Cuts."

Read Full Review >
38

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The Safety of Objects is just another stilted comic-dramatic essay examining the mold in the white bread.

Read Full Review >
30

Washington Post Philip Kennicott

None of them is nasty enough to be interesting, nor nice enough to be sympathetic.

Read Full Review >
25

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A noble attempt that doesn't hang together.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it an 8:
Writer/director Rose Troche's "Go Fish" first made me conscious of a formal cinema for gays and lesbians. "The Safety of Objects", however, tells the stories of white suburban heterosexuals, and to my surprise, nobody comes out of the closet, unlike Lisa Cholodenko's "Laurel Canyon", when Alex(Kate Beckinsale) unexpectedly kisses Jane(Frances McDormand) in the pool. Working from a short story collection by A.M. Homes, Troche can no longer be pigeonholed as a talented director from the "queer cinema" sector; she's just talented, period. If Troche scaled back on Helen(Mary Kay Place)'s misadventures in almost adultery, "The Safety of Objects" would've been a more focused piece of filmmaking. Troche could've sketched her in a few, broad strokes like Howard(Robert Klein), who we understand without any deep delving. Another misstep is the confusing relationship between Randy(Timothy Olyphant) and Sam(Kristen Stewart), which suggests that Randy harbored an attraction for his deceased younger brother. But that can't be right. Troche could've been a little clearer. To offset these minor flaws, Troche does a brilliant job with Jake's scary crush, and the crossed spiritual paths of Esther(Glenn Close) and Jim(Dermot Mulroney). Close is very good, but Patricia Clarkson is incandescent. And if we're going to toss out influences, it begins with Atom Egoyan's "Exotica". In both films, the final piece that ties everything together takes place in a car.

Stephen S. gave it an 8:
Comparisons with the suburbia of “Short Cuts” and “American Beauty” are inevitable, but I thought I saw more signs of the Todd Solondz or Hal Hartley movie chic. Rose Troche delivers her best film yet. She is technically assured, takes risks, works the cast, and shows emotional rigour. The similarity with “Short Cuts” is superficial. Sure, we flip continually between the several suburban stories, but these mini-stories are really linked and united, more conventionally than the styling suggests. They revolve around the deepest emotional cut, Esther Gold’s (Glenn Close) resolve to deal with the trauma of her comatose son Paul. I’ve never liked Close this much, in fact never liked her at all. But she finds the right nuances here. Dermot Mulroney makes out as the distracted lawyer on time out from job and marriage, aiding Esther’s bid to win a car in a sadistic shopping mall contest. Jessica Campbell is disciplined in her performance as Esther’s daughter, decidedly unimpressed by mum’s attention to the living dead. Kristen Stewart performs with a wisdom beyond her age, as the temporarily abducted young daughter of Esther’s neighbour. Chance and consumerism almost wreck community, but there is a kind of silver lining to it all. Don’t mind, because Troche has earned the right to exact a few tears at the end. If you want to be picky, the flashback scenes for the pre-accident version of Paul are not delineated clearly against the multiple jump-cuts of the present-time stories. If you’re watching this late at night, it might take a while to figure out what’s going on.

Brian R. gave it a 10:
An outstanding movie. Smartly written. Very funny and keenly observant. Thumbs way up!!

Althea W. gave it a 3:
The worst of its genre-- white suburban ennui.

Karen L. gave it a 9:
One of the best films this year!!!

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use