The Safety of Objects

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 ...more

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 ...more