The Safety of Objects

Review by Alysa Salzberg

(AlysaSalzberg@TheCinemaSource.com)

A trip to the mall is never a simple thing. Even if you've got one item to look for or buy, you end up staying at least a few minutes longer than you'd planned, lured into stopping for an Icee by the glowing neon lights of the food court. Watching Rose Troche's The Safety of Objects evokes the mall experience in more ways than one.

In fact, a significant portion of the action in this ensemble piece takes place in a suburban mall. There, Esther Gold (Glenn Close), a guilt-ridden mother tortured by memories of her now-comatose son (Joshua Jackson), is competing in a contest to win her daughter, Julie (Jessica Campbell), a new car. All she has to do is keep one hand on the car to win. There to cheer her on and act as coach is Jim Train (Dermot Mulroney), a young, handsome hot-shot lawyer going through a bit of a nervous breakdown that has led him away from disappointments at work, to this, his new purpose. Of course, Train's family, quite confused by his behavior, stops by. His wife (Moira Kelly) is upset, his daughter misses him terribly, and his son Jake…is another story altogether. Deeply involved in a relationship with one of his sister's dolls (I am not, absolutely not, making this up), Jake's looking for a plaything to give his sister in exchange for exclusive rights to his love. Sound complicated? I haven't finished. Like the local department stores the day after Thanksgiving, more and more people keep crowding in. There's Helen Christianson (Mary Kay Place), an age-obsessed mother desirous of change and freedom from routine and her old school husband. There's Annette Jennings (Patricia Clarkson), a young, dedicated single mom with two children, one of whom, Sam (who's involved in two of the surprise-ridden film's biggest surprises), goes missing. There's Randy (Timothy Olyphant) the hunky young neighborhood landscaper. Need more characters? Don't worry "” the movie has plenty more.

From the start, all of these characters' lives seem to be intertwined in some way. Certain people are introduced as strangers, but we wonder if they've spoken to each other before. The Safety of Objects is thick as a crowd at a super sale day. Every line of dialogue contains more than one meaning, and may provide clues to different characters' secrets, lies, and hidden souls. Scenes are often edited to overlap, so that one characters' movements are echoed, sometimes subtly, sometimes obviously, by other characters. As the film goes on, we start to notice things, and by the end, we find that everyone is connected by one life-altering event that happened a year before the film's beginning.

It's a fascinating experience, one that definitely has to

be watched more than once for all of its nuances to be appreciated. And yet, when you think of both the DVD packaging, and the trailers you might have caught on TV, The Safety of Objects may seem like just another tale of suburban distopia made popular by masterpieces like American Beauty or The Ice Storm, and played out over and over again in countless films thereafter. But there's something more here, twists and turns that make Safety unusually intriguing.

Its tone, too, is strange. At times, it's starkly realistic (in one scene, Esther prepares her comatose son for the night, propping him on his side with pillows, and smoothing Vaseline over his still lips). At other times, it's strangely, almost absurdly, surreal (like Jake Train's relationship with the doll, who talks and moves). Yet no matter what, it's all very compelling and near-impossible to turn away from once you've gotten into it. Safety is kind of like the smart older brother of Todd Solondz's Happiness.

That Safety is an adaptation of a collection of short stories (by A.M. Homes) is easily apparent, both from the huge cast of characters, to the way the film comes at you in all directions, presenting so many different conflicts. Often when a literary work is adapted to the big screen, some sense of profundity remains (not at all to say that movies can't be profound all on their own). While it's true that a number of Safety's themes and ideas can be summed up in pert phrases that easily take their place in the American independent film manifesto ("Everyone is hiding something," "Suburban life is shallow and materialistic", "Family members are alienated from each other", "Sexual suppression leads to unusual channels of erotic expression", to name a few), it's so well-made as to transcend that scene. In its sublime moments, it stands out as something quite unique. If you doubt me, all you have to do is skip to Glenn Close's first monologue. In it, Esther addresses her unconscious son softly, sadly, yet as though she's speaking to a person who can sit up and answer back. She ends the talk by leaning near his unmoving face, telling him that since so much bad has happened to them, no more can come, and thus he's like the guardian of the house, watching over the family. Statements like these come as new, refreshing breezes, invigorating a sub-genre that is often irritatingly predictable.

The film is well-acted, too. Especially of note are Close, carrying herself to look so frail you want to cry; Mulroney, unaffectedly playing a businessman letting out his inner slacker; Olyphant, intensely sane in his madness; Clarkson, exuding the simultaneous strength and fatigue of a parent trying to keep it together; and Kristen Stewart, in an incredibly

natural performance.

If you're looking for an often innovative, interesting, and sometimes darkly funny film, Safety is the DVD for you. And, hey, if you don't feel like heading out to the shopping center today, by renting this you'll have a good excuse for spending two hours glued to the TV. A good thing for active city- or country- dwellers and self-denying, suppressed suburbanites alike.

Movie Grade: B+