The Safety of Objects
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Rose Troche |
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| Cinematography | Enrique Chediak |
| Edited by | Geraldine Peroni |
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| Distributed by | IFC Films |
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Running time
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121 minutes |
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| Language | English |
| Box office | $319,299 |
The Safety of Objects is a 2001 American drama film based upon a collection of short stories of the same name written by A. M. Homes and published in 1990. It features four suburban families who find that their lives become intertwined. The film was directed by Rose Troche, who co-wrote the screenplay with Homes. It touches upon many issues of the human experience in life. There are about 15 major characters in the film.
Glenn Close plays Esther Gold, the mother of several children, including a son in a coma from a car accident. The other characters are related to the accident either directly or indirectly. As the story continues, the audience learns that all of the characters are connected in ways that they never knew.
In a suburban neighborhood, Paul Gold lies in his bedroom in a coma, caused by a traumatic car accident. He is cared for by his mother, Esther who in tending him closely has distanced herself from her husband Howard and teenage daughter Julie. Trying to elicit her mother's attention, Julie enters Esther in a local radio contest, in hopes of winning a brand new car.
Meanwhile, after years of putting his job first, Jim Train feels his family, especially his efficient wife Susan, no longer needs him. He tries to reconnect with his son Jake (Alex House), on the edge of puberty, but the youth is preoccupied with romantic fantasies about his younger sister's twelve-inch plastic doll. After Jim is skipped over for a promotion, he stops going to work, claiming that a bomb threat was called into his office. Feeling unappreciated by his family, he convinces Esther and Julie to let him help them win the car.
The Trains' neighbor, Helen Christianson, feeling older and less desirable, tries new products to keep her feeling young. She succeeds only in alienating her husband, who loves her as she is.
Helen's good friend, Annette Jennings, in the midst of a messy divorce, struggles to provide financially for her two daughters. Sam, 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, which her father, Annette's ex-husband, refuses to pay for. Annette is also mourning the loss of Paul, with whom she was having a relationship. Randy, the neighborhood's landscaper, is coping (poorly) with his own younger brother's death in the same car accident that grievously injured Paul Gold.
Annette's ex-husband comes to visit his daughters. He says that he wants to take Sam on a holiday. Annette refuses because Sam is not interested in spending time with her father, and her ex-husband does not want to care for the younger daughter. Sam overhears their argument and runs away from her father when he tries to talk to her at the park. Soon she bumps into Randy, who tells her that her mom instructed him to pick her up.
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