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Safety of Objects, The
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
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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)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
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...
Salon.com Laura Miller
All the acting in it is flawless, an overflowing handful of polished jewels.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
This is not the easiest film in the world to untangle, but our attentions are soon rewarded.
Read Full Review >Variety Eddie Cockrell
A genuine and tangible fondness and respect for the characters and their eccentricities.
Read Full Review >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >USA Today Claudia Puig
The interwoven stories are haunting, but also darkly funny.
Read Full Review >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 >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 >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 >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The disciplined performances play against schmaltz, and the casting is inspired.
Read Full Review >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The overall effect is imaginative but overambitious, though Troche unquestionably has cinematic talent.
Read Full Review >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 >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 >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 >Washington Post Philip Kennicott
None of them is nasty enough to be interesting, nor nice enough to be sympathetic.
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 Golds (Glenn Close) resolve to deal with the trauma of her comatose son Paul. Ive 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 Esthers bid to win a car in a sadistic shopping mall contest. Jessica Campbell is disciplined in her performance as Esthers daughter, decidedly unimpressed by mums attention to the living dead. Kristen Stewart performs with a wisdom beyond her age, as the temporarily abducted young daughter of Esthers neighbour. Chance and consumerism almost wreck community, but there is a kind of silver lining to it all. Dont 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 youre watching this late at night, it might take a while to figure out whats 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!!!
