SAFE

SAFE explores the fragility of the human spirit, weaving its story around its waning heroine, Carol, played by Julianne Moore. Carol’s life seems perfect in its materialistic splendor, but Carol seems increasingly disconnected. She responds to everything almost automatically. Her calculated responses gradually give way to mysterious physical symptoms such as seizures, nose bleeds and breathlessness — explaining them all away as environmental illness – a diminishing tolerance to everyday chemicals. Finally, she checks herself into the New Age Wrenwood retreat.

The film fuses Carol’s breakdown into a conclusion that provides no real answers to the questions the story poses. Writer and director Todd Haynes uses excellent lighting, long still shots and poignant silences to tell his story of a woman that is searching for meaning and identity. However, just as Carol’s troubled spirit finds solace in the Wrenwood retreat, the film fades from its technical brilliance to a more mundane end. SAFE has one sexual scene, two implied sexual situations and two profanities. Overall, SAFE presents the interesting point of view of inner emptiness, but caution should be exercised in its New Age worldviews where “you can create your own safe world.”