Troche delivers the drama-heavy envelope, but forgets to open it.
Talk about a suburb that could use a little Ned Flanders’ Howdily-doo. A child carrying on an affair with a Barbie doll, a gardener who can’t let go of the past, a mother’s struggle with raising a vegetable-like adult son and a lawyer whose purpose in life is to offer motivational support for potential prize winners. These are a sample example of the characters who have come to a crossroads in life, and who certainly seem that they can afford a shrink, but obviously for narrative purposes, they choose not to.
Rose Troche’s biggest incursion in film demonstrates how it might not just be adults who have problems; children themselves seem to carry enough baggage to fill the cargo compartment of a Boeing jet. This dramatic effort, which opens with a white plastic marionette number resembles the recent dysfunctional families quirks found in Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm and Solondz’ Storytelling. The Safety of Objects shows how people live life vicariously through their objects, a nice thematic touch that covers quite the large ensemble of characters. The staple portrayal of the picture comes in the form of a mother having trouble ‘letting go’ (Glenn Close-The Big Chill) which is thematically revisited in her poignant radio-contest marathon of keeping her hands plastered to a new car. A 2-hour tour of the hood shows us the links in unhappiness between the green grass neighbors next door is in theory, a universal matter. Perhaps they should consider group rates for potential therapy sessions.
Roche slowly divulges the route that leads to their triumphs, but surprisingly, it is not always clear what the characters will do, when one child is abducted you kind of can’t help but think the worst. It seems apparent that Roche has taken into account every single clichés and is doing her possible to avoid them. The filmmaker makes a decent effort here, I can see how this could have become the next American Beauty but somehow, the revealing of the film’s dramatic cards didn’t grip me as much as the film suggested, perhaps the film is missing a little of the freak or a little bit more emotion. The Safety of Objectsisn’t a bad film, it just doesn’t come out and grab the viewer with the kind of intensity which we aspire.
