The Safety of Objects

The Safety of Objects
by Rose Troche

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DVD Reviews of The Safety of Objects

DVD Review: Brilliant!
Summary: 5 Stars

The first thing you're going to notice about this brilliant, completely overlooked littke gem is the quality of the cast. I mean, we're talking major starpower here, and Troche blended them together to achieve something close to perfection. The story centers on four star-studded suburban families, a mysterious auto accident, and a contest that involves keeping your hand on a car longer than anyone else. Oh, and it was all written by the sick, twisted, brilliant novelist A. M. Homes. How could you possibly go wrong?

The Golds-- mother Esther (Glenn Close, giving a career-best Brandoesque performance),father Howard (Robert Klein), daughter Julie (Election's delicious chanteuse Jessica Campbell), and son Paul (Dawson's Creek alum Joshua Jackson)-- are the cornerstone of the piece. Paul was a victim of the car accident, and now spends his life in a coma. His mother dotes on him, his father can't bear to look at him, and his sister, well, she's a completely different story. Their next door neighbors are the Jennings. Mom (indie darling Patricia Clarkson, who is never less than great) is still perilously close to the edge a year after her husband (TV staple Andrew Airlie) left, raising a delinquent (Panic Room's Kristen Stewart) and a girl (Haylee Wanstall, recently found in Sugar) who is in some way mentally challenged; it's never said, but it looks like autism. Also involved are the Trains-- father Jim (Dermot Mulroney), mother Susan (Moira Kelly), and their two kids, and the Christensens, notably mom Helen (Mary Kay Place). All the moms want to sleep with the gardener (Timothy Olyphant). Okay, can you see the starpower radiating yet?

As with most of Homes' work, the idea here is that modern suburbia is weird. Very, very weird. Little, normal incidents grow into crises of insane proportions. Assumptions are pushed to their logical conclusions and coincide with completely irrational behavior, so that everything looks normal when it is anything but. And eventually, of course, it all begins to break down. Troche keeps the viewer's interest by being extremely coy about the details surrounding the car accident that sets everything in the story into motion, revealing piece by piece in flashback what it is that everyone's hiding, or guilty about, or sick of seeing over and over again in their heads. Meanwhile, present-day life is going on, and it's just as strange. Eventually, it all makes sense, but you have so much fun getting there that by the end, you wouldn't be terribly peeved had some of the pieces never fallen into place.

This is fantastic stuff. Very highly recommended. And watch for Jessica Campbell, the girl is going places fast. **** ½

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