Product Details

• Actors: Glenn Close, Dermot Mulroney, Mary Kay Place, Patricia Clarkson, Jessica Campbell
• Directors: Rose Troche
• Writers: Rose Troche, A.M. Homes
• Producers: Angus Finney, Christine Vachon, Colin Brunton, Dorothy Berwin, Eric Robison
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: October 14, 2003
• Run Time: 121 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000AZT1F
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #324,285 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A gorgeous collage of human details, The Safety of Objects intertwines the stories of four families living as neighbors in a pleasant suburb, all of them grappling in various ways with the aftermath of a car accident that left a teenager in a coma. That may sound histrionic, but the movie is carefully composed of little things, some ordinary--a lawyer uproots his wife's flowers because he mistakes them for weeds--and some absurd--a boy fantasizes about having a relationship with his sister's doll. But all of it, absurd or not, has some core of emotion. As the title suggests, the characters seek solace in the inanimate, things that can't betray, abandon, or truly need them. The outstanding ensemble cast includes Glenn Close, Dermot Mulroney, Patricia Clarkson, Mary Kay Place, Jessica Campbell (Election), and Kristen Stewart (Panic Room), among others; all fit together into a deeply felt whole. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker

A good cast can't save this pretentious movie about suburban lives of quiet desperation. Glenn Close, Dermot Mulroney, Patricia Clarkson, Kristen Stewart (the strikingly androgynous girl from "Panic Room"), and others say silly, overthought things to each other, and seem unable to start their cars without having some sort of epiphany. The director Rose Troche adapted the stories of A. M. Homes, and, as is the case in a lot of short-story movies, the connections between the characters feel manufactured, designed for maximum gazing across lawns at lighted windows and teary bedroom confessions. -Michael Agger
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wickedly Entertaining!!!!, April 12, 2003

By 

Mark Twain "Sam" - See all my reviews

A delicious cast delivers terrific performances in this wonderfully upbeat and engrossing ensemble drama in which we quietly follow four neighboring suburban families in their overlapping journeys through loss and reconciliation. Although an ensemble effort, Glenn Close provides the emotional core of the film as Esther Gold, the mother of troubled teen Julie (Jessica Campbell) and comatose Paul (Joshua Jackson).

Paul's story is told in flashback, and it ties together the film's characters. The neighbors face their own trials, as Jim Train (Dermot Mulroney) faces a career crisis and Annette Jennings (Patricia Clarkson) copes with serial abandonment. More families and sub-stories bubble up, including a disturbingly hilarious romance between a boy (Alex House) and his sister's Barbie doll.

Like Robert Altman's "Short Cuts," which weaves together a selection of Raymond Carver stories, "The Safety of Objects" overlaps tales from A.M. Homes' short-story collection of the same name. "Objects" accomplishes the singular feat of adapting Homes' insular material while showcasing the director's own sense of intimacy and thematic structure.

Director Rose Troche has crafted a gothic suburban tale about how life affects us all. She presents it with such confidence and care, that we love all of the characters, even if we don't like them.

The movie is unsettling because it refuses to view its characters from a reassuring, judgmental distance, allowing us to see what we normally wouldn't, and shouldn't. It makes for a shocking and emotional journey, with only the ending being disappointing.

"The Safety of Objects" is brilliantly acted, beautifully written, and powerfully directed. If conventional Hollywood garbage isn't your cup of tea, this film is highly recommended.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A BOOK ADAPTATION GONE AWRY..., May 31, 2004

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Safety of Objects [VHS] (VHS Tape)

With a superlative ensemble cast giving note worthy performances, I expected this movie to be better than it actually was. Unfortunately, it was a sterile production, as none of the characters really grab the viewer emotionally. The normal rules of engagement seem to be lacking, leaving the viewer with the sense of having seen a shell of what was potentially a good film. Instead, the viewer gets a film with a few good hurrahs amidst a motley reel of celluloid. It is an ambitious film that does not see its ambitions realized.

Adapted from a book of short stories by A. H. Holmes, the film attempts to weave these short stories into a collective, cohesive narrative. It is a strained effort, at best. It gives an ostensible slice of suburban angst through the stories of four middle class families, neighbors in a suburban community. All have some connection to a car accident that severely injured the son of one of these families, causing him to remain in a vegetative state.

The film plods along, unraveling the accident in tortuous fashion as it takes the viewer to the final denouement. Some of the characters behave inexplicably without rhyme or reason as to why they would behave in such a fashion, leaving the viewer to wonder why. While the reasons may be of interest, there is not a clue as to such. It may simply be that the author's interrelated short stories simply did not adapt well to film, despite best efforts to make it into a cohesive entity.

Yet, a pre-pubescent boy talks to his sister's Barbie doll, believing that they have some kind of relationship, and he believes that Barbie talks back to him. A man whose marital relationship is on the brink of disaster leaves his wife and family at a critical juncture in order to help a neighbor try to win an SUV contest at a local mall. Why they act in this fashion is the question. The answer is entirely shrouded and obscure, so that the viewer is left puzzled and grasping at straws, in the end not really caring at all why.

So, despite excellent performances by the cast, the film is torpid at best, staying afloat simply because of the efforts of the cast not to go down with a sinking ship. The stories of the characters themselves simply cannot sustain the film sufficiently, despite the valiant efforts of the cast and the director. It is a somewhat depressing film that is unable to break away from its own inherent torpor. Still, it is worth a rental, if only for the fine performances of this stellar ensemble cast.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Despite the Bad Reviews, I Loved It!!!, January 2, 2005

By 

E. A Hill (Plumsteadville, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Safety of Objects (DVD)

I absolutely loved this movie and highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't yet seen it. It's a wonderful collage of several suburban families who are somehow linked together although the reason is not revealed until the very end of the movie. Do yourself a favor and ignore the bad reviews and try it for yourself.