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DigsMagazine.com.
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Plot synopsis
In a quintessentially suburban neighborhood, the sort where the lawns
are always preternaturally green and the homes look like life-size
dollhouses, four families struggle with private tragedies, messy inner
lives and strained relationships. Middle-aged Esther Gold spends all her
time tending to her teenaged son Paul, who lies in a coma in his old
bedroom after a terrible car accident. Her bitter, sullen daughter Julie
keeps tabs on who gets more of Mom's attention; it's no contest, Paul's
way ahead, despite the fact that Julie's going through a rough time
herself, and could really use someone to talk to. Annette Jennings is a
frazzled single mom, trying to raise her kids and cope with a very
difficult divorce; she cries a lot and yells a lot, and by and large,
the other neighbors seem to treat her as if her sad situation were
contagious. The Trains look like the perfect yuppie family from the
outside; handsome dad Jim is a hardworking young lawyer, mom Susan stays
in their beautiful home to care for the two beautiful kids. But the
Trains have their secrets too. For one thing, son Jake has been
conducting a vividly imagined and disturbingly torrid
pseudo-relationship with his little sister's Barbie doll. Meanwhile, Jim
sort of goes off the deep end when he learns that he's been passed over
as partner despite how much he's put into the firm over the years; he
simply stops showing up to work, telling no one -- not his bosses, or
his secretary, not even his wife. Last but not least, there are the
Christiansons. Perky Helen takes care of the kids and still seems to
have endless amounts of energy to spare. She's the sort of woman who
always has a smile on her face and a nice word for everyone; beneath the
smile, however, she's actually in a bit of a funk, feeling out of touch
with both her husband and the kids, and secretly pining away for her hot
young gardener. For all these neighbors, it turns out that those
picture-perfect homes hide less than ideal home lives -- and that
despite those vast manicured lawns dividing one family from the next,
it's impossible to keep everyone's lives from mingling, getting tangled,
become hopelessly intertwined.
Review
Suburban dysfunction is an ever-popular theme in contemporary movies and
television, from major Oscar-winners like American
Beauty to art-house darlings like Happiness
to smash TV shows like my latest boob tube addiction, Desperate
Housewives. Add The Safety of Objects to the list of
excellent takes on life in suburbia. Rose Troche's underrated indie is a
meticulously crafted movie that gracefully and deftly weaves together
its myriad storylines, a la Robert Altman, to create a portrait of
American middle-class angst that really resonates. The large ensemble
cast is positively to die for; you get a respected Hollywood star (Glenn
Close), indie stalwarts galore (Dermot Mulroney, Mary Kay Place,
Patricia Clarkson) and some of the best bring young things out there
(Jessica Campbell from Election,
Timothy Olyphant of HBO's Deadwood). All the actors are terrific,
but it's Glenn Close's subdued, half-numb Esther and Patricia Clarkson's
falling-apart-at-the-seams Annette that anchor the storylines and
provide most of the emotional depth. Yes, The Safety of Objects
can make for somewhat bleak viewing, as it shows us exactly how easy it
is to lose ourselves in the effort to conform to how we think others
think we're supposed to be living. But hey, maybe that's not such a bad
wake-up call to get, every once in awhile. And the nicest thing about The
Safety of Objects is that if you look close, underneath the surface,
you'll still be rewarded with glimpses of hope. —reviewed
by Yee-Fan Sun
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