Following up on her 1998 opus Bedrooms and Hallways, Rose Troche directs this ensemble film about suburbia and its discontents. Once an up-and-coming singer/songwriter, Paul Gold (Joshua Jackson) now lies in a coma, attentively nursed by his mother Esther (Glenn Close), who dotes on her son to the exclusion of her husband and her daughter Julie (Jessica Campbell). Meanwhile, Jim Train (Dermot Mulroney) is a workaholic lawyer who is closer to his tortes than to his spouse Susan (Moira Kelly). Their son Jake has taken a morbid fascination with his sister's foot-high girl doll. At the same time, Paul's former lover Annette Jennings (Patricia Clarkson) is trying to pull her life and her family back together after a particularly brutal divorce. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Review
Director Rose Troche weaves together snippets of painful suburban short stories by A.M. Homes into the lukewarm ensemble piece The Safety of Objects. In a uniquely appealing opening sequence, the interconnected families are introduced by way of white plastic figurines in a dollhouse neighborhood, leading into the separate tragic episodes. Though undeniably interesting to piece together, many of these domestic situations translate as dull and uninvolving when put to film. This is fortunately helped by incredible performances from the well-cast group of actors. The underrated Patricia Clarkson shines here as a tough-as-nails mom, creating the most believable drama. Mary Kay Place is sad and funny as a fitness-obsessed neglected wife and Dermot Mulroney brings a freshness to his stale role with some funny internal monologues and character quirks. One of the more humorous subplots concerns his son, Jake (Alex House), who imagines a romantic relationship with a Barbie-style fashion doll. As the brooding daughter Julie, Jessica Campbell is a refreshingly real-looking teenager whose proportions are closer to actual living girls' bodies, rather than the emaciated ones usually photographed for audience consumption. As Julie's mom, Glenn Close also gives her all to the dowdy part of Esther, but even she can't bring enough urgency to the drama. Perhaps it's because the movie takes place after the car accident, rather than during a more exciting build-up (which was, incidentally, effectively done in the similarly themed The Ice Storm). Nevertheless, the interwoven stories are skillfully edited and manage to come together into a sincere tale of suburban woes without resorting to easy satire (American Beauty) or mean-spirited cynicism (Happiness). Troche also does her best to avoid excessive sentiment, leaving the story with a heartfelt but rather tepid conclusion. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Kristen Stewart - Sam Jennings; Mary Kay Place - Helen Christianson; Moira Kelly - Susan Train; Alex House - Jake Train; Charlotte Arnold - Sally Christianson; Robert Klein - Howard Gold; Andrew Airlie; Stephanie Mills; Angela Vint; Aaron Ashmore - Bobby Christianson; C. David Johnson - Wayne Christianson; Haylee Wanstall - Rayanne Jennings; Kathryn Winslow - Catherine; Balazs Koos - Walter; Matthew MacLennan - Jeff
Credit
Rose Troche - Director, Rose Troche - Executive Producer, Emboznik - Composer (Music Score), Dorothy Berwin - Producer, Christine Vachon - Producer, Rose Troche - Screenwriter, A.M. Homes - Short Story Author
The Safety of Objects is a 2001 independent film based upon a series of short stories written by A. M. Homes about four suburban families who find that their lives become intertwined. The film was directed by Rose Troche, and has many characters. It is often considered an "intellectual film" in the sense that it touches upon many deep issues of the human experience in life. There are about 15 major characters in the film. Perhaps most notable is the character Esther Gold, played by Glenn Close. Esther Gold is the mother of several children, including a son who is in a coma from a car accident. The other characters are also related to the accident either directly or indirectly. As the film's story continues, the audience finds that all of the characters are connected in ways that they never knew.
Plot summary
In a modest suburban neighborhood, Paul Gold (Joshua Jackson) lies in his bedroom in a coma, nursed by his mother, Esther (Glenn Close). Esther dutifully tends to Paul day and night, and in doing so has distanced herself from her husband Howard (Robert Klein) and teenage daughter Julie (Jessica Campbell). In an attempt to elicit her mother's attention, Julie enters Esther in a local radio contest in hopes of winning the brand new car that is up for grabs.
Meanwhile, after years of putting his job first, Jim Train (Dermot Mulroney) feels his family, especially his efficient wife Susan (Moira Kelly), no longer needs him. He tries to reconnect with his son Jake (Alex House), but pubescent Jake is preoccupied with romantic fantasies that revolve around his younger sister's twelve-inch plastic doll. Jim stops going to work, claiming that a bomb threat was called into his office, and convinces Esther and Julie to let him help them win the car.
The Trains' neighbor, Helen Christianson (Mary Kay Place), feeling older and less desirable, tries new products to keep her feeling young but succeeds only in alienating her husband, who loves her as she is.
Helen's good friend, Annette Jennings (Patricia Clarkson), in the midst of a messy divorce, struggles to financially provide for her two daughters. Sam (Kristen Stewart), the older tomboyish daughter, is desperate to go off to camp that summer. Sam's younger sister suffers from mental disabilities and requires special schooling, schooling that her selfish ex-husband refuses to pay for. Annette is also mourning the loss of Paul, with whom she was having a relationship. Randy (Timothy Olyphant), the neighborhood's landscaper, is also dealing with the loss of his younger brother.
Annette's estranged husband comes over so that he can see the children. He states that he would like to take their eldest, Sam, on holiday. Annette refuses because Sam isn't interested in spending time with her father and her ex-husband does not want to care for the younger daughter. Sam overhears the ensuing argument and as a result runs away from her father when he tries to talk to her at the park. After stopping behind a near by building, she bumps into Randy who convinces her that her mom instructed him to pick her up.
Randy takes Sam to a remote cabin in the woods and keeps her there, not allowing her to call home while calling her 'Johnny'. After what appears to be three days, Randy starts driving back to the suburb in an attempt to recreate that night. However, when the beer he asks Sam to hand him doesn't explode, he appears to come to the realization that the person in the back seat is Sam, not his brother, named Johnny.
Esther eventually gets to the final two in the radio contest, only to pull out at the last moment after nearly three days of physical and emotional taxation. Julie becomes angry and runs off. Jim, angry at what he feels is an inadequate second place prize, becomes violent and wrecks the area. He gets chased off by Bobby, Helen's son, who works as the mall security guard. Esther, who finally becomes aware of how much she has neglected her daughter, goes home and tearfully suffocates her son. Jim returns home, and Randy lets Sam go home. Helen almost cheats on her husband, but eventually returns home having done nothing.
It is revealed in a flashback what caused the car crash which put Paul in a coma. Randy, Paul, and Randy's younger brother were travelling in a car after a gig that Paul's band played. Randy's younger brother gave Randy and Paul beers which were secretly shaken, so that they exploded on Paul, who was driving. As they were driving, another car carrying Julie and Bobby came from the opposite direction. (They were rushing Julie home after an impromptu tryst so that Julie wouldn't get in trouble for violating her curfew.) As they weren't looking, both cars had to swerve to avoid one another, and Paul's car swerved up the side of a hill and flipped over. Randy and Julie both ended up thinking that they were to blame for the crash.
